Chapters Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
“Wake up, sleepy head.”
I opened my eyes a bit to the sound of someone in my room. It was a little odd since whenever someone comes into my room, the drag on the carpet wakes me up instantly. I turned over and saw the most unusual sight.
“What the heck are you supposed to be?”
It was some kind of amorphous creature. An amalgamation of different creatures, if you will. The parts I could recognize most easily were that of a dragon and a goat which basically gave me the vibe of weird Chinese dragon. I couldn't really tell that much with my blurry vision and tired eyes. Wow, this thing was strange. Yet, why did I get such a familiar vibe from it? It was like I knew it from somewhere.
“Does it really matter what I am?”
“I guess not since I think I’m half asleep and dreaming you up. You do look kind of familiar though.”
“Perhaps. However, you have places to go, creatures to meet, and things to do. So, up and at 'em!”
“The only thing I have to do is go back to sleep and get ready for my job tomorrow after I get up.”
“Oh phooey. Then I guess I’ll have to do this the hard way.”
A snap of his fingers later and the covers flipped off of my bed on their own. I flinched quickly, but I realized I still had something on. I was inwardly glad that I still wore underwear when I go to bed. I’ve just never been comfortable without wearing something. It’s the reason I never take off my watch.
“You have a big journey ahead of you. A journey in a fun new world. A journey that I know you won’t forget.”
At his point, I figure I’m still dreaming so I decide to roll with it. I rarely ever get a self-aware dream and I wanted to have a little fun with it.
“Alright, whatever you are, what journey am I going on?” I asked as I put on my glasses.
His features came into a better view, but I still couldn't place him since my mind wasn't exactly running at optimal speed yet.
“Oh no, that would be spoiling the fun.”
“Can I at least wear some pants for my journey?” I asked as I rolled out of bed.
“Why would I let you wear pants? Leaving you like this during your journey would be much funnier.”
“Yeah, I bet it would,” I said as I moved past him and reached down to my pile of dirty laundry in order to grab a pair of said pants off the top. I could have just as easily grabbed another pair out of the dresser directly behind it, but my mind was still booting up.
“Humph. Well, I do suppose you can have some pants. After all, you’ll need them if you want to carry this around.”
“Carry what around?” I asked as I finished putting on my pants.
“Why, this of course!”
As I turned around, he tossed something shiny to me. I basket caught it while nearly tripping on the bedpost, and took a look at it. It looked to be made out of gold, but it was too light to be real gold. On one side, there was the image of a horseshoe. It’s pretty plain, but I like it simply because I’m a big Colts fan even after I moved out of the state. I flipped it over and on the other side it’s a lot more intricate. There were small symbols all over it. There’s a large ring of six symbols and inside of them there are another three symbols. The only two I recognize are a horseshoe, again, and a crescent moon since the rest are a bit too tiny to make out the details of with me being so sleepy and all.
“Cool coin. Is it supposed to be some kind of currency?” I asked as I looked back at him.
“Of course not. It’s your lifeline. Don’t lose it.”
"Well, it is a pretty nice coin. I doubt I would lose it around the place here."
"Didn't I tell you this not a few seconds ago? You're going to need it on your journey."
He snapped his fingers again and I heard a whoosh sound behind me. I turn around and see a tunnel bathed in a soft gold light right where my air hockey table should be. I then feel a push on my back and I’m sent hurtling into the shiny new tunnel. As I fell down the tunnel, I sighed and tried to figure out how to fly. It’s a dream, right? I should be able to fly... Wait, why can’t I fly?
As I continued to fall, and right before I start to process that sensation, the tunnel started to taper off and I started to tumble my way down instead of free-falling. Eventually, it goes horizontal at which the end of the tunnel appears. I tumbled clumsily out of the tunnel and finally finish face down in the grass.
“Well, this is bad," I said with a groan. "I am hurting all over. That means that this can’t be a dream. When I'm dreaming, the pain usually wakes me up.”
As I pushed my way up to my feet, I noticed that I’m in the middle of a forest. As I finished dusting myself off, I took a look at my surroundings. It’s a little creepy looking, but not too bad. Maybe a few weird looking blue flowers, but nothing that really stood out any. It wasn't really somewhere I wanted to be, but it wasn't like it was a toxic wasteland. I looked up and caught a glimpse of the sun where there was a break in the trees and quickly shielded my eyes with my hand.
Surprise lit up my face. I stared with a ridiculous look on my face since now there was a tattoo on my left hand. A blue horseshoe tattoo.
I’m really not a tattoo person. I don’t really like needles. Or pain. Tattoos combine both of those, so while it may be cool, I obviously didn’t get this myself.
“You know, this looks similar to the horseshoe on the coin that that thing gave me.”
I suddenly realized that I don’t have that coin in my hand. I searched around and located it quickly underfoot. Whatever that thing was, he said it would be important so I better hang onto it. I turn it over to look at it again and notice something different.
The large horseshoe on the one side is gone.
“Well, this could be bad. Unless, of course, the coin is like some kind of stick-on tattoo," I said and then scoffed. "Yeah, right. I doubt that thoroughly.”
I stuck the coin back in my pocket and looked around again. I noticed that there seemed to be a small path in one direction. It wasn't a very well-traveled path, but I was pretty sure that it would lead somewhere. Noting the fact that I really didn’t know which way to go anyway, I figured that it was as good a starting point as any and then thought to look at my watch. It was currently 4:17 a.m. I guess that it’s still synched up to the time at home. Maybe I was in China or something. I don't know. Most trees look the same to me.
Several uneventful hours went by walking down that path and I finally made it out of the forest. It was a nice stroll, and I came out to a nice grassy field. A nice breeze was flowing across the the vast expanse. It actually felt pretty refreshing. It had quite the view as well. The birds were flying high. There were a few rabbits skipping across the field. A nice rainbow was forming in the sky.
Wait a minute.
Since when does a rainbow actually form in the sky? Don’t they just appear at random when it rains?
I had to squint to take a look at the front of the forming rainbow. It just seemed odd that something like that was happening. Then again, compared to what happened earlier this really didn’t rate quite as high on the weirdness meter. Still, strange is strange and I kind of like that. Well, within reason of course.
The rainbow actually looked like it changed course in midair. It was good because it was getting closer for me to see now. However, it was bad because RAINBOWS DON’T CHANGE DIRECTION IN MIDAIR!
Irrationality finally subsiding, I finally got a look at the front of the rainbow. I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things.
It was a horse.
“Why is there a horse guiding a rainbow?”
Then it hit me. It hit me like a train.
Rainbow Dash.
The character from My Little Pony.
Except this wasn’t on my television. It’s in my eyeballs.
My last thoughts before I passed out from shock were this:
“I wonder where this would put me on the hierarchy of bronies?”
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
“Ugh…”
I awoke to a rumbling stomach. I always hate it when that happens. Annoyed, I went to grab my covers, but I only grasped air. I momentarily wondered where they went and then reality catches up with me.
I pushed myself off the ground to a sitting position. It was night time. It’s a nice, clear night with only a slight breeze. I looked up to take a good look at the moon. There was a nice, full moon tonight. There’s also no horse sitting in the middle of it, which lets me know it’s either before the first or after the final Nightmare Moon incident. Hopefully, it’s after that since not really much is known about before. Wait, I saw Rainbow Dash. Of course it's after that, idiot. It’s my own fault really for not thinking things out. Still, the moon looked really nice.
Wow, now that I knew where I was, I actually seemed interested about my surroundings.
I took a look at my surroundings again with renewed vigor. I was still on the grassy field at the edge of the forest. Looking back into the forest, I can honestly tell you why it creeps the ponies out now. You could see pretty well inside that forest when it’s daytime. In fact, it looked just like a normal forest during the day. There wasn’t really anything different about it than a regular forest other than a creepy vibe it seemed to give off.
At night, it was a different story.
The place seemed to exude the unnatural. You couldn’t see more than a hundred feet into the thick of it. A thin mist also seemed to flow from it. Shadows looked like they were dancing everywhere you weren’t looking and seemed to grow still when you did look there.
I really didn’t want to be anywhere near there right then.
I pulled myself off my ass and started walking away from it. I then started walking backwards after a short bit since I really didn’t want anything from there sneaking up on me in case they decide I’m delicious.
Five minutes later, I was far enough away to stop getting that creeped out feeling and started walking normally again. At this point, I wasn't really sure where I was. I knew that I was outside of the Everfree Forest, but I wasn't exactly sure which way Ponyville was.
I shook my head realizing that I actually had to think that thought. I was in Equestria right now. There are talking ponies over one of these grassy hills. Or all of these grassy hills. Wow, all these hills sure are monotonous. They’re all covered in grass with a few trees clustered in a line in a few spots. Why are they all in line? Perhaps it’s just so they look better?
Why was I here? Sure, every person who reads books or watches movies or plays games wishes they were in one of those at some point. It’s just a normal thought they would have. At least, that’s what I think anyway. I know I do all the time.
Of course, in every one of those scenarios I’m a demigod dealing out outside context punishment to all those who do wrong. I’m definitely not a two hundred thirty pound weakling with diabetes. Hell, this probably isn’t even my first choice about a world I would go to either. Whichever place I went to would be some place where there were tons of hot women who are all closet nymphos. Maybe it would be a place where I was an epic fighting machine and had to fight bad guys that were too powerful for anybody else to defeat. To be honest, Equestria would probably be about ninth on my list and more as a nice relaxing breather. No offense to the hardcore bronies.
“Oh well. I’d better make the most of this," I said and paused in my movements.
Taking a look around, I tried to see anything that looked familiar. Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville, Fluttershy’s house, maybe even Cloudsdale. Sadly, no such luck I’m afraid.
“I guess it’s time for the pick a direction game. Three general directions to choose and civilization is not even a guarantee. So pick and go!”
I like to hear myself talk sometimes. It breaks up the monotony of silence I’m used to being around. Speaking of silent, why didn’t I hear anything? It may be night, but it’s not like there wouldn’t be something moving around; making noise. It was deathly quiet.
With the quiet starting to creep me out, I decided to keep going forward. I was going that way already so why not keep on keeping on? My footsteps were, however, now the loudest thing around.
“I am so glad that this is Equestria right now and not some horror movie.”
With that spoken thought, I kept moving. I took a look at my watch. It currently read 2:41 p.m. I stared for a second and remembered that it’s still on the same time from home. That may bug me for a while. It’s not as bad as when I didn’t fix my watch for daylight savings time and didn’t bother to do it at all that one year. However, I decided I'd just invert the a.m. and the p.m. until I find out differently that it’s wrong.
I kept trudging along. A few minutes turned into ten, then thirty, and then finally after an hour and twenty minutes, I come across something that isn’t a grassy hill.
“Ah, so this is the mystery prize.”
It turned out that my walking eventually led me to Fluttershy’s house. It is pretty intriguing to look at. It’s a house that was built as a tree. By that, I mean that it seemed like it curved out of the foundation like it came from roots. The roof looked like it was covered in thick leaves instead of shingles. The whole thing just rose from the ground like it was meant to be there just as it was.
As tempted to stroll up to that house as I was, I instead took a seat on the grass about a quarter mile away. I had no idea how most ponies here would react to me. This was Equestria. I had no idea if they even know what a human is. Besides, this was Fluttershy. Even if I didn’t know how the rest of them would react, I know that she would be scared if a six foot man suddenly appeared at her doorstep.
What were my options? I could follow the road by her house and it would lead me to Ponyville. Of course, with my luck I’ll end up going the wrong way down that road and I’ll end up in some place that is a derivative of a human city’s name like Fillydelphia or Manehattan.
With that option gone, my choice would be to stay here until something spotted me. One of her animals would probably spot me first and then tell her about it. Well, either that or take similar action a la Fluttershy. I could just wait here until either she sees me or one of her friends checks up on her absence from hiding from me. Wow does that sound boring. At least that will get me results.
My stomach rumbling again reminded me that while that would work, it would take quite a while. I would need to eat something soon. However, I still had the same problem as before. If I left, I wouldn’t know where I might end up. I didn’t see Ponyville from where I was and again I might end up going the wrong way down that road.
“I guess I’ll just have to man up and ignore it.”
My stomach rumbled and groaned to make me aware of what it thought of that plan. I could try to go back to sleep and make myself tough it out, but then again I just woke up from my fainting spell less than two hours ago.
“Aw man. I did faint didn’t I? Yeah, that’s going to look great if anybody saw me. I’m telling myself to man up and I faint like a little girl. Way to go me! You are a little girl in a man’s body. How does that sound?”
I looked around a few times. I almost expected someone to tell me how it sounded. I guess with all the ponies asleep and me not being on Earth for somebody to mock me, no one would answer my question. Since no one was around to hear me, I decided to move closer to the house so that someone will notice me.
After I moved a little closer to the house, I then went a little off to the side so that I was near the road. If she does indeed hide from me, at least someone who checks on her will then see me near the road and I can move on from there. Though, I’m not sure how I’ll be treated from there. I’ll wing it and see where that leads me.
Deciding that I’m certain about my spot, I sat down and started my waiting game. I looked at my watch again. It showed 4:22 p.m. I’d been in Equestria for over twelve hours.
“I really hope that the time here is just a flip of Earth time or who knows how long I could be waiting. If it’s a straight flip then it should just be a few hours. If it went dark just before I woke up then I could be waiting quite a while.”
I looked at my watch again. It’s 4:23 p.m.
“I really wish he sent me with a game. This is going to be boring.”
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
Making a Good First Impression
9:32 p.m.
My watch currently read 9:32 p.m. as I finally watched the sun rise in the distance. While it was nice to see that finally happen, I think that means that the time scale is not quite synched up. Either that or they just have their own personal times on when to yoink the sun and moon up and down. After all, they both raise them on their own schedule. It’s not like they couldn’t do it whenever they felt like it. They could make one day shorter than the last and then make the day two hours longer than the previous one. When you’re capable of moving stellar bodies just using magic, you can pretty much just set your own timetable.
Well, at least within reason. If not, then you pretty much get the Nightmare Moon scenario all over again. I doubt they want a repeat performance of that anytime soon. Even if soon was a thousand years ago.
“Well, now that the sun is up, I should be getting some activity soon.”
My stomach growled at me again.
“Hopefully, some breakfast as well.”
I sat there waiting again. Damn it was boring. I had already sung every song I’ve ever heard that I can remember, played tic-tac-toe with myself, messed with invisible finger puppets, tried to count all the stars in the sky and failed miserably, and then I finally started doing something productive. I thought about how to talk to them like I knew them.
Unfortunately, it didn’t take me that long. I actually already had a plan in case this ever happened, as scary as that sounds. The only thing that I changed slightly was some of the details in regards to how I got here. With that sorted out rather quickly, I had to go back to thinking up things to do. I decided on how pissed I was that I hadn’t seen the Avenger’s movie yet. I’d missed it for two straight weeks after people going with me had bailed on me. This weekend I had Saturday afternoon off and would just see it myself. Forget trying to get my family together for a viewing this time. They just ticked me off at that point.
That segued me into thinking about home. Did my family know I was gone? What about my job? Did my boss fire me for not showing up? I needed that paycheck. I doubt that she would take ‘I got transported to a world of talking ponies’ for an excuse. That would happen even if she believed me. Wow, that was kind of a depressing thought.
Thinking that got me to look at the sky and notice that it was getting brighter, which brought me back to the present. Despite the fact that the sun had just risen, I knew it would still take a bit of time before I got noticed by anything. At least it wasn’t deathly quiet anymore. I could start to hear the sounds of nature around me a little. Birds were chirping in the distance. I could see a few butterflies flitting around as well. Would the butterflies be able to talk to Fluttershy? It didn’t really matter since they weren’t coming in this direction.
Finally, some of the animals around the house were stirring. I checked my watch really quickly. It was 10:09 p.m. Please, somebody tell me the correct time!
I watched as a few birds and squirrels moved in the trees. Some rabbits were moving around as well. I didn’t see Angel anywhere, but then again I had no idea if I did or not. It’s not like I can tell it apart from any of the others and I didn’t see its little house from where I was sitting.
Why weren’t any of them noticing me? It seemed odd how they either didn’t notice me or did and just didn’t react in a way that I could tell that they did. Perhaps I was just unassuming in my spot over here. Oh well, it didn’t matter. I didn’t want to move from this spot until I was within normal speaking distance of a pony. I needed to stay non-threatening. Play nice or I get the boot.
After a short time, it finally happened. Fluttershy came slowly out of her house. She was deliberate in her motions afterwards, which means she didn’t know I was here yet. I looked at my watch again. It read 10:24 p.m. I fiddled with the mode a few times and stopped on the function that I never used.
My T2 time mode.
It was a feature that let me set the time to a different time zone from elsewhere in the world. It was a silly feature, but it was a cheap watch and I needed a new one anyway. Now, however, there was finally a use for it. It had been almost an hour since the sun rose so I could set the watch for that. It took a couple of tries since I went through it so fast that I accidentally skipped it once, but I got it set. Now, when the sun came up, in theory anyway, it would be midnight according to the watch and I could calculate a day time from that. It was a few hours off from my current time and seemed like a waste, but it was somewhere to start from.
A quick yeep tore me from my attention to my watch. It seemed Fluttershy had finally noticed me. I looked up just in time to see her zip back into her house and slam the door behind her. Now the clock had officially started. Unfortunately, that sucked because it meant more waiting. It all boiled down at that point to what outcome would happen next.
The first option was that she talked to me herself. That meant that she mustered up the courage to come down from her house to talk to me herself. I didn’t really like that option since she was, well, shy. It was in her name after all. I could sympathize with her, though. Her behavior was a lot like how I acted. I would be shy around people I didn’t know unless you got me on a topic I was very comfortable with. That even happened with my family sometimes. I had learned to deal with it.
That brought me back to the other option: waiting for her one of her friends to show up and notice me along the way. They were all close friends, so not seeing her for a time would bring them to her and when they showed up, they would see me. I’m not sure how long that would take, and it had a great many factors of its own. Who showed up would be the biggest factor. How they reacted would be the next. Moving past that, however, was not something I really thought much upon.
The biggest factor, however, was the fact that I haven’t eaten since I had arrived. That fact was compounded by the knowledge that I had gotten about four hours of sleep back home before whatever that was woke me up. Also, I then remembered that I hadn’t eaten dinner that night.
“Argh, that means I haven’t eaten in almost a day. That sucks.”
At that point, I fell to my back and started laying there. The food situation was really not going well for me. I needed a distraction from it and fast. I looked at my watch again. 1:16 set time. Sixteen minutes since Fluttershy had zipped back to her house in what I guessed was fear. Who knows if that was what had actually happened.
“All this waiting is just brutal.”
At least that sounded thought got me thinking about the show Deathklok. They loved saying things were brutal. Of course, the stuff they were saying was brutal was way up the list from my predicament. That moved me back into rock music again. That got me thinking of how you could make a rock song about MLP:FiM. What would that even sound like? What would the lyrics be? I bet Rainbow Dash would appreciate it. Rock music sounds like something she would probably enjoy. I wondered what else she might enjoy. Things she considered awesome like the Wonderbolts made me think of how she would react to a Blue Angels show. Those were some good pilots. Piloting made me think about my Ace Combat game. Why hadn’t they released a new one yet? Ace Combat 6 was a bit of a weaker entry. Perhaps they were just figuring out how to get past that.
I looked at my watch again. It was 1:49 set time. Half an hour since the last time I looked. My stomach groaned even louder. My tactic worked, but it just got worse afterwards. By that time, I was hoping that she had an appointment with one of her friends and being late would make them come sooner.
“Ummmmm…”
I looked over and saw Fluttershy about fifteen feet away. I was a bit surprised. She showed more courage than I thought in order for her to come over to me.
“I, uh, I heard your tummy growling. D-do you want something to eat?”
She was still pretty timid. Her voice was barely above a whisper. I didn’t want her scared of me, so I simply nodded my head.
She didn’t seem like she became frightened or calmed by my answer. So far, so good.
“I have some food in my house. I could bring you some, you know, if you don’t, you know, you don’t mind.”
Her voice kept getting quieter as she said that. I needed to dial it up a little. This time, I smiled and then nodded.
“Okay. Wait here and I’ll bring you something.”
She was still quiet, but that last sentence came out without a stutter, so maybe the smile worked. She flew back to the house and went inside. I really hoped that she would bring me something I can actually eat. I wasn't sure what I could get that’s edible for me and fits into the diet of herbivores. Not to mention my picky eating habits.
A few minutes later she flew back to me with a basket containing a few different items. I leaned up from my back to take a look inside, making sure I keep my smile on my face.
Luck found me a couple of things in the basket. I spotted a carrot and a slice of bread. I reach in and grab both of them.
“Good. I’m glad there was something you could eat in there. I wasn’t sure there would be and that would be sad if I didn’t have anything you could eat.”
I sat up and started eating the carrot. I was glad that it was washed. Halfway through, I started eating the bread. It was, of course, oat bread. It makes sense that it would be oat bread. It’s not really my favorite, but I was starving and I would have to force my way though.
While I was working on that, I noticed that Fluttershy had left and brought me some water. I honestly can’t stand water, but I’m eating this and I’m thirsty enough by that point to take it. I drink it down halfway before I come up for air.
“Are you feeling better now that you’ve had something to eat?”
Her voice has gotten sturdier. I know this is working now. I’m not sure if I want to press this yet, so I smile again and nod.
“That’s good.”
I finish off the bread and the water and decide that now would be the time to press on. I really hoped that this would work.
“Thank you for the food.”
She flew back a bit in shock. I’m just glad she didn’t fly away completely and hide in her house again.
“Y-You can t-talk?”
The stuttering was back. At least she was still talking.
“Yes, I can.”
“I d-didn’t think that you c-c-could.”
“That’s alright. Have you never seen a human before?”
“A h-human? N-no I haven’t. I’ve n-never heard of that.”
“It’s okay if you haven’t. I’m not from around here. My name is Seth.”
“I’m… I’m… Fluttershy.”
I couldn’t hear her when she said her name, but then again I knew it already. I decided to act like I did to make things easier on the both of us.
“That’s a nice name. It’s definitely better than mine. You seem uncomfortable. Is that my fault?”
“Um, no, no. It’s not.”
“I think I am. I’m sorry about that. I’m big and scary and most kids are a little scared of me. I’ve learned to live with it.”
“Awww, that sounds sad.”
“I know. I’m okay with it, though.”
“I know. Maybe you should come and meet my friends. They wouldn’t be scared of you.”
Wow, that was easy. I was hoping to convince her to let them meet me. I didn’t think that she would try to take me to them of her own accord. This was turning out to be easier than I thought. Still, I’d better keep myself this way. Any change might make her change her mind and it will be that much harder to get the ball rolling.
“Are you sure they won’t be scared? If you’ve never seen a human then they probably haven’t either. They might not be as amiable as you’ve been.”
“It’s okay. If you’re with me then they won’t be afraid of you.”
“Really?”
“Trust me. If they see you with me, I don’t think they’ll be scared at all.”
“Alright. Lead the way Fluttershy.”
As I stood up and followed her down the road, I noticed two things. One, she went down the road the opposite way that I would have picked. That means I probably would never have found my way to Ponyville. Two, Fluttershy was using her normal voice to talk to me. That meant she wasn’t totally afraid of me anymore. I probably seemed too pitiable to be scared of.
Finally, I was on my way to Ponyville. A true test of what awaits me will come there. Even with Fluttershy leading me there, I doubt things would go that well. I wonder what-
My thought was cut off as something tackled me from behind. I flew by Fluttershy and landed hard on the ground; tumbling head over heels a few times. That hurt. A lot.
I started to black out from the pain. Before I did, I heard a voice from behind me.
“Don’t worry Fluttershy! I’ll protect you from that thing!”
What is it with Rainbow Dash causing me to black out?
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
Making a Better First Impression
The throbbing woke me this time around. It was a dull ache in my back and in my head. For the moment, I kept my eyes closed wondering what hit me. Then, I remembered.
Rainbow Dash. She tackled me from behind. I honestly expected to be paralyzed from how fast she usually tackles somebody. Of course, I may be right.
“Wiggle your left toe,” I whispered to myself.
I feel my toe wiggle under the sheets. That’s good. It means I’m not paralyzed, and she didn’t snap my spine when-
Wait a minute. I’m underneath sheets?
I opened my eyes. I’m not currently outside. I’m staring into a ceiling. And at a birdhouse? I think for a minute and then realized where I am.
I’m in Fluttershy’s house.
Either I made a pretty good first impression on her or she’s feeling bad about Rainbow Dash tackling me. I’d honestly bet on the latter, though I should hope that I still did make a good enough first impression. Just because I’m friendly doesn’t mean they won’t be cautious. I wasn’t kidding about the scaring the kids thing. I put on a flannel shirt and denim pants and had a fake machete for Halloween once and I did end up scaring a few younger kids away. Basically, I scared them away by dressing up as a lumberjack. How messed up is that?
Shaking that thought from my head I looked around the room. It is a pretty odd sight. Bird nests in the rafters, a vine growing along the wall into the ceiling, and holes in various places that would never be seen in actual architecture. There were normal things you would see from a house out in the woods, however. A couple of bookcases, a fireplace, a table with a lantern on it; the only oddity in there was a couple of hanging posters. The windows were a bit strange in that there were two different types. One was square and two others were rounded.
I took a moment from that weird design to look at the bed I was in. It was a wood frame, of course, with a butterfly design all over it. She really did like butterflies, didn’t she? I suppose I would too if they not only they saved my life, but shortly thereafter they became my cutie mark.
I looked around to see if there was anybody watching me. No one was there. That was a bit strange to me considering that I was sort of a patient.
“Enough!”
I heard the yell coming from down the stairs. It was loud enough for me to hear, but not loud enough for me to tell who it was. It did, however, let me know that there was at least three ponies downstairs since I doubt anybody would be getting into an argument with Fluttershy.
I pulled back the covers and was grateful that my pants were still on. That would be embarrassing. I did that once in front of my family when I was young and I still haven’t lived down the punishment. Rolling out of bed and standing up were not greeted with the silence I was hoping for. The bed creaked and the floor groaned when I put my weight down on it. It’s a wood house. What else should I have expected?
Steeling my resolve and silently wishing that I had gotten a shirt on before I left, I slowly made my way down the stairs. I was hoping that this wouldn’t go badly.
What greeted me when I got halfway down the stairs was almost what I expected.
Of course I spotted Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. They were the instigators of my predicament. They were currently standing in the middle of the room. There with them were Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Spike. All eyes were on me as I finished descending the stairs.
I wasn’t kidding when I said that I’m pretty shy as well. The stares they were giving me were definitely not helping. It was bad enough that I actually started backing up the stairs slowly. I only made it three steps.
“Wait!”
Dash’s outburst actually made me jump a little. Not exactly a fun sensation when you’re sore and have a headache.
She followed up her shout by flying over and putting herself between me and the upstairs area.
“Don’t go! I, uh, I wanted to say that I’m sorry about tackling you. I was heading over to see Fluttershy and I saw you right behind her and I kinda didn’t think things through. I’m really sorry about it.”
She ended by hanging her head low. There was no way I could fault her for what she was doing. I crouched down on the stairs and put my hand on her shoulder.
“I understand. You were just looking out for your friend. I accept your apology.”
She looked up at me and gave me a nice, warm smile. I liked that. Frowns on ponies were just a bad thing.
“So, you can talk just like Fluttershy said,” interrupted Twilight.
“Yes, yes I can,” I answered turning my head to her.
“Good! That will make things easier. My name is Twilight Sparkle. You know Fluttershy.”
She pointed at the aforementioned pony.
“The one who crashed into you is Rainbow Dash.”
I internally chuckled at the fact that she said crashed. She crashed into me about the same way a kamikaze pilot crashes into things.
“On my right here is Applejack.”
Applejack bowed her head slightly.
“And finally, on my left here is Spike the dragon.”
Spike waved his hand at me. I waved back to be polite. Then, I stand back up and face them properly.
“Hello, everyone, my name is Seth. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“So, Seth, is it true that you are a human?”
I give myself a faux once over for laughs.
“It looks like I still am. It seems I haven’t turned into a pony.”
“Were you expecting to turn into a pony?”
“Not really, but you never know.”
She gives me a quizzical look before continuing.
“Where is it you came from?”
“I came from Earth. It’s a nice little place where all humans live.”
“Really? So you’re not the last of your kind?”
“Pfft. Not even close. There are more than six billion people living on Earth.”
Her jaw dropped at that number.
“S-six billion?”
“Yeah, I’m told that it’ll be seven billion by the end of the summer.”
“That…is a lot of humans.”
“I’ll agree with that.”
“Are they all as big as you are?” asked Applejack.
“Not really, no. The average height for men is about five foot ten inches. The average height for a woman is about five feet six inches.”
I grab my stomach.
“I’m also a bit overweight.”
Spike chuckled at that. He looked like he was about to say something as well, but a few looks from the others made the retort die a premature death. As he did, I moved back down to the base of the stairs.
“I’m curious as to why we don’t know anything about humans. All I could find was obscure references in some mythology texts in the library.”
“Yeah, I have no idea about that. Then again, back on Earth, ponies are usually just one of a few colors. In fact, I think they only come in three colors; black, white, and brown with varying shades of each. I’ve never seen a purple pony, or a yellow pony, or especially a pony with every color of the rainbow.”
“You have ponies back on Earth?”
“Yes, we do, but like I said there isn’t much variety between them. Also, they can’t talk like you seem to be able to. In fact, the only species capable of speech on Earth is humans. Well, parrots as well, but they just mimic speech and can’t actually talk.”
“Horses that can’t talk? That there sounds like a load of hay.”
I switch my gaze over to AJ.
“Hey, it’s not like we can’t science up a way to do it someday. We just have different priorities. After all, we can’t do everything we want like magic.”
“Magic can’t do everything, but there are a lot of different things magic can do.”
I look back to Twilight.
“Not on Earth. Magic doesn’t exist on Earth.”
Again, I watched her jaw drop. It was beginning to get a little funny watching that happen.
“No magic?” Spike interrupted. “It must take forever to get things done.”
“Not really. Scientific advances have helped us grow as a civilization from the ground up.”
The word science instantly broke Twilight out of her shock.
“Science? You study science?”
Her voice was that of barely contained glee.
“I don’t personally I’m afraid,” I said as I shook my head. “I was never really that good at that sort of thing. Others like Issac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking were really the best at that kind of thing. I just know more basic scientific facts. Although, my trip here is making me think more about multiverse theory than I did before.”
“Multiwhat now?” I heard Applejack ask.
I decide to answer without looking at AJ.
“Multiverse theory is a scientific theory that was hypothesized a hundred years ago by some scientist whose name I can’t remember. Basically, the whole thing is about the fact that reality contains more than just the universe that we all live in. In theory, there are many different universes that exist all at the same time. There’s a lot more to it than just that, but I’ve always been in favor of it because life would just be boring without more variety to it.
“Take Earth for example. On Earth, we go about our daily lives without the use of magic. In fact, we haven’t even found proof of intelligent life anywhere else in the universe that we know of. How about now, though? I’m talking with ponies. Ponies that can not only fly, but say that they can use magic. Frankly, this is way more exciting than anything I did on Earth.”
I drew a few chuckles from the group.
“Alright, then is there anything else you needed to ask me Twilight?”
“How is it you ended up here?”
There was the question I was waiting for. Time to get this moving to the necessities.
“Well, I got woken up in the middle of the night by this weird creature. It never gave me its name. All it did was toss me this really shiny coin and then pushed me down a glowing tunnel. When I fell out the other side, I was in the middle of a forest. It gave off a really creepy vibe.”
“The Everfree Forest?” chimed in Fluttershy; her voice barely above a whisper.
“Maybe. It sounds familiar somehow. Anyway, I walked my way out of the forest and collapsed right after I got past the edge. I didn't wake up until after it had already turned dark. Then, that creepy vibe the forest was giving off got even worse, so I left it in a hurry. I walked for a while and found Fluttershy’s house here. Even though I found this place, I didn’t want to intrude because that just seemed wrong. Instead, I just waited outside for someone to notice me. It took a lot longer than I thought it would and I got pretty hungry. Luckily, Fluttershy came along with some food. She told me she was going to take me to see her friends and I was following her when Rainbow Dash tackled me from behind. I woke up later and here we are.”
“Wow, that there sounds like one heckuva journey there partner.”
That got me thinking about what that thing said. He told me that I was going on a big journey. Is this what he meant?
“You said he tossed you a coin. What kind of coin?”
“Oh right. Here, let me show you.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the coin. I then held it out for Twilight to see.
“Wow!” Spike blurted out. “That is shiny!”
“Spike! Anyway, let me take a look at it.”
Twilight’s horn began to glow a faint purple. That looked cool. It meant that I was going to see real magic up close. If you’ve never seen magic in real life, then of course it’s going to be interesting. The coin became wrapped up in Twilight’s magic.
And then the room exploded into a brilliant golden light.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
The bright light seemed to be everywhere at once. I closed my eyes and shielded my face with my arm, but it didn’t help. After what seemed like forever, the light finally died off. My eyes cleared up a bit after that.
I looked around and saw that everyone else fared about the same. Oddly enough, there were actual stars circling Dash’s head. I honestly never thought that I would see happen, but look where I am. Eventually, everyone regained their senses and the questions began.
“What in tarnation was that?”
“Magic,” answered Twilight, “really strong magic.”
I looked down to my hand. The coin was still held within it.
“Wow, if I knew that was going to happen, I would have just handed it over to you. Sorry about that Twilight.”
“It’s not your fault. How could you have known it reacted to magic that way?”
“Good point. Let me hand you the coin this time.”
This time I carefully put the coin in Twilight’s hoof. She looked over the coin carefully as I tried rubbing the spots from my eyes. It didn’t help any, but that didn’t stop me.
“Wait, this symbol on this coin looks like my cutie mark.”
“What?” chorused the others.
I kneeled down to take a look as the others gathered around to take a look at the coin. Sure enough, one of the symbols on the outside ring had changed to look just like Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark.
“That’s weird. It didn’t look like that before. That’s the second time that the coin has changed appearances.”
Twilight looked up at me.
“Wait. This was the second time?”
“Yeah. The other side of the coin is blank now.”
I demonstrated by turning the coin over to the blank side.
“However, when I was tossed this coin there was a large horseshoe on this side. When I landed here, the coin had fallen on the ground and when I picked it up the horseshoe was gone.”
I then held my left hand out.
“Also, I had this tattoo appear on my hand before I noticed the coin.”
“Is that where humans get their cutie mark?” asked Twilight.
“Humans don’t get a cutie mark. There’s no magic on Earth remember?”
“So it was just there when you got here?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Exactly right.”
“Well, that just don’t seem right. You sure ‘bout that?”
“As sure as I can be, Applejack.”
As everyone was staring at the coin again, I decide that I probably should start up my cover story for all the info I have on them. If I don’t tell this to them soon, then I might spout off something I know that none of them had told me and it will make them much more suspicious of me then.
I look up and see Rainbow Dash hovering over all of us to look at the coin. That seemed like a perfect segue. I reach up and grab her and pull her closer to my face.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
“This mark,” I begin with faux surprise, “I’ve seen this mark before.”
“Wait, you’ve seen this before?” asked Twilight.
“It was in that tunnel. While I was falling, I kept getting these images that just popped into my head. This was one of them.”
“Do you remember anything else?”
“Yes, yes I do. There were some butterflies, some gems, some apples, some balloons, and-“
I snap my gaze over to Twilight.
“Wait, Twilight, can I see your cutie mark thing?”
“I… suppose.”
She turns to her side to show me. I widen my eyes as if in shock.
“That! I saw that too! And a sun and a moon!”
“Did you see anything else?”
I decide to step it up a little.
“Not then, but every time I black out, I keep getting more images and, strangely enough, I think I knew about the forest that way too. I think that’s why it sounded familiar earlier.”
“I don’t know. That all sounds like a bunch a hooey ta me,” interjected Applejack.
The Element of Honesty at work. From my own observation, she was a terrible liar herself and when it came to her friends it seemed a bit dulled at times, but she did always seem to catch lies more often amongst others. I thought about denying it and sticking with it thoroughly, but I’ve been a bit of a liar for a bit too long. The best tactic to work against suspicion was to meet halfway.
“Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. All I know is that it is what I believe to be true. That’s all I can do right now.”
Applejack seemed to back off at that. I’m not sure if it worked or not, but I don’t think she wanted to press the issue.
“Um, about the butterflies…”
I looked over to Fluttershy. She had been very quiet the whole time and had barely even spoken since I arrived. It was almost like she wasn’t even there. She followed her statement by showing me her cutie mark.
“Were these the butterflies you saw?”
I looked intently at the cutie mark on her flank.
“Yes! Yes they do look the same!”
I reached over and picked her up.
“They are the same! They are!”
She smiled at me, even though she looked uncomfortable at the same time. I noticed it and set her down.
“Umm, sorry about that. I got a little excited,” I said sheepishly.
“That’s okay. You didn’t mean to.”
“I’m glad. I’m actually surprised at how light you are.”
“That’s sweet of you to say.”
“Why thank you-“
Hold up. I just picked up a four foot tall pony like she was an empty cardboard box. I’m an overweight pudge. How does that even make sense?
“I really hate asking this, especially after what I just said, but how much do you weigh Fluttershy?”
Her demeanor changed instantly. It was a bad thing to say and I recognized it instantly. I needed to switch targets.
“Nevermind. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
I turn around to Twilight Sparkle.
“Twilight, how much do you weigh?”
I ended up with a similar reaction, although not as strong as the one that Fluttershy gave.
“I’m sorry about asking you. I know that’s not really something I should ask a lady. However, I’m conducting an on the spot experiment and it seems you like science so I hope you’ll help me with this.”
Her demeanor cleared up for the most part, but she still seemed slightly embarrassed.
“Alright... I weigh about one hundred and fifty pounds.”
Spike looked like he was about to say something when he got a death glare from Twilight. I recognized it immediately and pressed forward before anything happened to the poor guy.
“Thank you, Twilight. I just needed a weight reference for what I’m about to do.”
I walked up next to her and crouched down next to her.
“What exactly are you going to do?”
I put my hands around her torso.
“I’m going to do this.”
I lifted her up into the air and fell back onto my back from overcompensating. However, I managed to keep her in the air and not run her into anything.
“Woah there partner. Are you alright?”
I could hear Rainbow Dash chuckling from just out of sight.
“I’m just fine. I just overcompensated when I picked her up. I didn’t hurt you, did I Twilight?”
“No. I’m alright.”
I set her down on my left just in front of a couch and picked myself up.
“Could I try that one more time, please?”
I knelt down beside her again.
“Alright, but be careful this time.”
This time I usd one hand and picked her up with ease. Everyone was quite surprised, but their surprise was nothing compared to mine.
“That’s pretty darn impressive.”
I stood there, completely bewildered while holding her up. I couldn’t even think straight about it. She felt like she weighed about two pounds, not one hundred and fifty. This just seemed completely illogical. I doubt I could pick up half of her weight back on Earth, yet now I was holding her up one-handed without even feeling strained.
“Umm, do you think you can put me down now?”
“I may need someone to kick me first. My brain may have just broke.”
“Sure. I can do that,” answered Rainbow Dash.
I continued to marvel at my new feat of strength. How was it possible? Maybe gravity was weaker here and the scale was different? A pound here could weigh less than an ounce back home. No, that couldn’t be it. For that much of a difference there would have to be almost no gravity at all. The way I’ve seen things fall here made that impossible.
“Hey!”
Dash’s yell broke up my train of thought and I looked down to her.
“Oh yeah. Are you going to do that yet?”
She gives me a look of utter confusion.
“What are you talking about? I already did!”
“Huh?”
I watch as she kicks me in the gut. I barely feel it at all. I set Twilight back on the ground.
“This is completely impossible. I can barely lift fifty pounds back home, let alone a hundred and fifty. Now, I’m getting kicked by a pony in the gut and I can barely feel it.”
I look over to Applejack.
“Hey, can you try doing this?”
“Ah don’t know ‘bout this. Are ya sure I ought to do this?”
“Well, normally I would say no, but Rainbow Dash here just did it and I barely felt anything. No offense.”
“Well, why did ya ask me ta do it?”
I guess she doesn’t quite trust me yet. Oh well, I still have a way around this one.
“Well, I would ask Fluttershy to do it, but I don’t think she could hurt a fly. I suppose I can ask Twilight if you think she can kick harder than you.”
The reaction I got from Applejack was priceless. She gave a nice confused look followed by an angry glare. It was so easy I could cry.
“Nah. Ah reckon I could do better so ah might as well.”
She walked over from the other side of the room, turned around, reared up, and kicked me square in the chest. I felt that one more than Rainbow Dash’s kick, but it still didn’t hurt. I knew she didn’t hold anything back either. Her pride as an apple bucking farmer would allow nothing less after a subtle insult to her pride.
“That definitely felt stronger, but it didn’t really hurt.”
That got me to thinking. How did Rainbow Dash tackle me like she did? I turned to ask her.
“Hey Rainbow Dash, how fast were you going when you tackled me out there?”
“I don’t know. Pretty fast I’d say.”
“Hmm, I suppose more speed going into tackling me meant more force behind it than the kick that Applejack gave me. That would make sense. I don’t suppose we can go outside and you can show me how fast you were going?”
“Sure! I’d love to show you how fast I can go!”
“But you just got out of bed. You should stay inside until you’re feeling better,” interjected Fluttershy.
“I’m fine Fluttershy,” I said as I looked to her. “I just asked to get kicked by ponies. I think I’ll be fine.”
I didn’t mention my headache to her. However, as I said that, I realized the soreness I had before coming down the stairs had went away. What was up with this place? It was like I was in some convoluted fanfic where I suddenly became ten feet tall and wielded life and death with a mere gesture. Pretty soon I’ll be able to transform into a dragon and bitch slap Galactus with no repercussions.
Damn, I hope my mental state doesn’t deteriorate any further. I’m stretched thin as it is.
We all walked out the front door to see Rainbow Dash give her demonstration. Well, they walked out. I, however, almost had to get to my knees to get through the doorway. I still drew a few chuckles from the group as I struggled to get outside. Once there, we all lined up to watch Rainbow Dash.
“All right! Prepare to be amazed!”
She leaned back and suddenly burst forward like a bullet. She then gained altitude in almost a complete ninety degree turn. Looking at that up close was pretty impressive. She then did a few loop-da-loops to show off, finishing with a dart right in front of us. She then circled back in front of us and landed with absolute grace.
“Wow that was amazing!”
“Told ya!” she boasted with a huge grin on her face.
“You were going that fast when you tackled me?”
“Yeah!”
Wow, she had to be going about half the speed of sound. For some reason I held out my right hand and tried to shoot a laser out of it. Thankfully, nothing happened.
“What are you doing?” asked Twilight.
“Making sure my sanity is still functional.”
“And you’re doing that by holding out your hoof?”
“It’s a hand, and I was seeing whether or not I could fire a laser from it.”
“A what?”
“A laser. Essentially it's high energy light particles. I seem to be breaking the laws of physics that exist where I’m from and I just want to make sure I’m not just hallucinating this whole thing.”
“And how exactly would that help ya?” asked Applejack.
“I honestly don’t know anymore. So, I might as well just roll with it. Is there anything else that you all needed?”
“Well, there are a lot of questions that I still would like to ask you. Unfortunately, it’s almost sundown.”
I took a look at my watch. Something I hadn’t done since I had woken up. It read 12:33 p.m. set time. It meant that either they weren’t on a set schedule or that it was one of the warmer months.
“Hey, what’s that on your arm?” asked Twilight.
“Oh this? This is my watch. It lets me know what time of day it is.”
She looked closely at it.
“But there aren’t any hands on it.”
Oh right. They have no idea what a digital clock is.
“It’s a digital watch. It displays the time of day in number format instead of using the hands of a clock.”
“Did you use science to make this?”
Twilight’s voice was beginning to rise in pitch. She was definitely interested in this.
“Science is responsible for making this, yes. Unfortunately, I don’t know any of the details.”
She kept staring at the watch closely. I looked at the others. They seemed just as lost as I did. Well, everyone except Rainbow Dash. She just seemed to have a bored look on her face. I needed to get this back on track.
“You said it was getting late. Does that mean you need to head back home?”
She finally pried her attention away from the watch to answer me. As she did, I put my hand behind my back.
“Yes, I do need to get back home. I’m sure the rest of us do as well. Right girls?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash answered first. “I got some stuff I need to do tomorrow. I’ll see you all later!”
Rainbow Dash then took off like a coiled spring. She then flew off towards what I assumed was the direction that Cloudsdale was in.
“Ah reckon I gots to go too. Them apples ain’t gonna pick themselves you know. I’ll see y’all later.”
Applejack then took off by herself.
“Well, I don’t think you have a place to stay the night. Why not come with me to my place and we can talk more while we’re there?”
“I suppose I can do that. Give me a second.”
I walked over to where Fluttershy was sitting. I then kneeled down to her level.
“Twilight Sparkle said that I could stay at her house. Are you okay with that? I could stay here if you want me to.”
She looked and sounded a little flustered as she spoke.
“Oh, well, umm, I suppose, um, you can, umm, stay wherever you want.”
I placed her chin in between my thumb and forefinger and raised her gaze to meet mine.
“I know that this is uncomfortable for both of us. Please, tell me if you would rather have me stay here or if you want me to go to Twilight’s house. I promise I won’t be mad with you for either choice.”
She manages to keep her eyes focused on mine as she answers.
“I want... I want you t-to go stay with Twilight,” she says and then looks away.
It looks like she still has her doubts. Oh well, I’m fine with that. I take my hand off of her chin and place it on her head. She gives a slight ‘meep’ sound as I do. I then gently rub her head.
“Alright, I’ll go stay with Twilight then. I hope you’ll come and say hi to me tomorrow.”
I take my hand off of her head and rise to my feet.
“Alright, Twilight, lead the way.”
“Sure thing! Come on Spike.”
“Aye aye, Twi!”
I chuckle at that and follow the two of them away from Fluttershy’s house. I look back while walking to see if she was going to change her mind. Her lowered head and avoided gaze told me otherwise. I then turned back to the way I was walking.
“I hope not too many ponies are around. I really don’t like being the center of attention. All the staring would really make me uncomfortable.”
“Don’t worry about it!” proclaimed Spike. “You’re with us. Nobody will think anything of it.”
Yeah, that was quite reassuring.
Author's Note
Author's note: I hope my wink and nudge in there doesn't discourage anybody from reading on.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
Getting to Know Each- Wait What?
The good news, it was sundown by the time I reached Ponyville. The bad news, there was still quite a few ponies left to gape at the strange creature waltzing through town.
It took us several hours to make it to Ponyville at my slow pace and the sun had set about less than an hour after we had left. Sundown itself was interesting, however. Just like I thought, as with sunrise, the setting of the sun was much faster than one back on Earth. It took just a few minutes for it to finish here unlike back home. I made that comment to Twilight and she told me about the princesses raising the sun and moon. I made a remark about how cool that was and continued on without anything more said on the subject.
Other subjects, however, were a different story. Being quite the student, she had to ask questions about all kinds of things such as housing, transportation, agriculture, and many other different topics. I answered all her questions as best as I could considering that the information I had wasn’t particularly useful for anything in particular. After all, I was more of a jack of all trades and nowhere near a master of anything. About the only thing I was pretty good at was video games and I don’t even think they could conceptionalize that let alone know what I’m talking about. Equestria was pretty much a pre-industrial civilization. Electronic media was a bit outside the realm of their understanding right now. Then again, it may not be too far off considering that there was an episode with a movie projector in it. Oh well, something to think about later.
One of the more interesting things I noticed was how there seemed to be quite a few houses on the road to Ponyville. It actually made me wonder how I went straight to Fluttershy’s house without running into any others. I went across relatively open fields and didn’t see a single house until I reached there. How did that make any kind of sense?
None of those thoughts helped me as I reached the town proper and caught the stares of the citizens of Ponyville. There weren’t that many ponies wandering around since it was now after sunset, but there were several dozen ponies still out there and none of them could avoid staring at the big hairy creature.
“So, Spike, still think they won’t make anything of it?”
He looked up at me.
“Awww, don’t worry. They’re all just curious.”
“Curious isn’t the word I would use for some of those stares. Please tell me it’s not too much farther to your place Twilight.”
“No it’s not that far. In fact, you can see it now.”
She pointed to the library that was her home. I looked on in amazement.
That place put the images you saw on the t.v. to shame. While, yes Fluttershy’s house was basically the same, this place looked a great deal more impressive. Winows and balconies of every size were strewn all across it. There were several spots in which the leaves were trimmed to look like odd symbols. A few lanterns were strung from various places to give it a soothing glow in the darkness. The whole site seemed to give off an aura of tranquility that even Fluttershy’s house seemed to somehow lack. I suppose I could chalk that up to the fact that the place doubled as a library.
That got me to thinking. Why didn’t anybody ever visit the library? I don’t mean nobody came by at all. What I mean is that you never saw anybody come to read any of the books in the library other the Twilight and her friends. Wasn’t this the town library? Why didn’t anybody show up to get a book from it?
I banished those thoughts as we made it to the entrance of the library. The door there was one of those split level doors that you see in a barn. The ones that you could unlock and only the top swings open. I think those were made with large four-legged animals in mind so that they could look outside without getting loose from there. Not sure if I was right or not as I ducked near-horizontally inside the doorway.
The interior was pretty cool too. The wood had been hollowed out in a manner that worked functionally in each capacity that was required for it. It was quite odd how the enclaves for the books were rounded while the stairs were at perfect angles though. Wood doors in wood doorways looked weird to me somehow as well. All in all a very nature friendly adaptation.
“So,” I began, “you live in a library?”
“Yes. It is wonderful living here. It lets me study in peace.”
“I guess that’s not really surprising.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t really have a place for you to stay. I have a couch that you can sleep on, but it isn’t very big.”
“I guess that’s fine. I can figure it out on my own somehow. I’m honestly not even sleepy right now. I think that’s probably because I’ve only been awake for three or four hours.”
“I can understand. Can I ask you some more questions for a bit?”
“I don’t see why not.”
“Good! I’m going to write a quick letter to the princess and then I can get back to the questions!”
“Sounds fine, Twilight.”
I was actually a little surprised that she hadn’t already sent a letter to the princess about me. By that, I mean she came to Fluttershy’s house to see me. I think. She also came there with Spike. Why didn’t she send a letter then? I guess I could probe that with some general confusion questions.
“Hey Twilight?”
“Yes?”
“How long will it take for that letter to get to the princess anyway?”
“Not very long at all. Spike is about to send it right now.”
I look past her to Spike who took a deep breath and lit up the scroll with his fire.
“Wait a second; I thought you were sending that letter to the princess. Why did Spike set it on fire? And how the heck did it burn up so fast?”
That second question was more me being curious than thinking about the situation.
“Spike did send the letter to the princess. Spike uses his dragon fire to send the letter to her magically. That’s also why it burnt up so quickly.”
“I…guess that makes sense. So, why didn’t you send one to her back at Fluttershy’s place?”
“I had gotten there only a bit before you came down the stairs. I didn’t have the time to take a look at you especially since Rainbow Dash and Applejack stared yelling at each other and I had to break it up. I’m assuming that’s what woke you up.”
“Actually, I woke up a few minutes before that. It did, however, get me moving downstairs. Why were Applejack and Rainbow Dash fighting? Was it my fault?”
“Sort of. Fluttershy was telling us about who you were, what you were doing there, and how you got hurt in the first place and Applejack started to yell at Dash for being too reckless. Rainbow Dash started yelling back saying that she was just doing it to protect Fluttershy from some creature that looked like it was sneaking up behind her. Things just got out of hoof from there. I finally had to separate them magically and told them they shouldn’t be fighting with you recovering upstairs.”
“So I guess it was my fault.”
“Again, only sort of. By the way, how did you recover so fast?”
“That’s a good question. I know it didn’t hurt when they kicked me in the house, but I really felt it when Rainbow Dash speed tackled me from behind before that happened. I did feel pretty sore after I woke up, but by the time Fluttershy was asking me how I felt the soreness seemed to have already gone away. That just doesn’t make sense to me. Whenever I felt sore back home, I usually ended up feeling sore for days. I got over this in, what a couple of hours? Maybe even less if I was only sore while I was conscious.”
“That does sound quite unusual.”
“I get the feeling that it’s the environment. I didn’t have any of these capabilities before I came here.”
“It’s possible, I guess. There could be a lot more factors than just your new environment that are affecting you that could have led to this outcome.”
“True, however, environmental causes are the most likely in this case. I would like to rule out these things in order to come to a reasonable conclusion.”
“As do I. Although, there are still some questions I would like to ask you if that’s alright with you.”
“Well, considering I have no idea how to get home I really don’t much of anything other than time on my hands. Go ahead Twilight.”
Time just seemed to fly by as Twilight kept up her onslaught of questions. She asked me about everything that she could think of asking. The topics she wanted to know most about seemed to be science related. It was so like her to be curious about that.
That isn’t to say that she didn’t talk about anything else. She asked questions about biology, infrastructure, sociological and theological topics. Several of those questions actually surprised me. I wouldn’t have expected some questions about theology from someone who believed their princess may or may not be a deity in her own right.
I, myself, didn’t really think they were goddesses. They were ultra-powerful creatures who could wield the primal forces of nature. Then again, a lot of different ponies could do that. Earth ponies affected the growth of crops. Pegasus ponies could manipulate the weather. Unicorn ponies could create things with their magic. The princesses just had the same power only dialed up in magnitude. I even included Princess Cadence in that category. She could manipulate the hearts of all ponies. That was a powerful ability in its own right. In all honesty, I totally believed that if Twilight had enough time, she could train her magic up to that level.
The questions went on for hours. To be perfectly honest, I was actually wondering where the princess was the whole time. I would have thought that finding out about some mythological creature showing up in her kingdom would get her to show up personally and in a timely fashion. Then again, Princess Luna watched over Equestria during the night. Celestia was probably still asleep right now. Other than during the gala and the wedding, I had never even seen Celestia awake during the night that I could remember. Of course, sometimes I have to remember that I always think I know more than I really do. I may know about it, but I still have yet to do anything about it.
Before I knew it, the sun actually started to shine through the windows of the library. I don’t think I’ve ever spent an entire night talking to anybody in my entire life. The staying up the entire night part was definitely a familiar experience, though. Good times and bad times they were.
“Wow, I can’t believe that it’s morning already.”
“Huh?” asked Twilight.
I pointed at the windows and she was shocked to see that she had indeed spent an entire night talking to me.
“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to keep you up all night.”
“It’s alright Twilight. Like I said earlier, I wasn’t very tired at all. In fact, I still don’t think I’m that tired right now.”
My stomach decided to make itself known at that time by groaning loudly.
“Being hungry, however, seems to be more of a concern right now,” I said and gave a weak smile.
Twilight giggled a little at my statement.
“Well, we have been up all night talking. Maybe we should get something to eat.”
“That sounds nice. Do you have any food around here?”
“No I don’t. We’ll have to get something to eat someplace.”
I froze up a little at hearing that. That meant leaving the library. That meant exposing my big, old self to the townsfolk. No, not that kind of exposing. Quit that kind of thinking right now. Besides, I’m still not comfortable being the center of attention. This would definitely bring attention to me.
“Are you sure I should leave the library? I don’t really want to cause a panic.”
“I don’t think you’ll cause a panic. Several ponies saw you last night and nobody panicked then.”
“Yeah, well then I was flanked by you and Spike and they still stared at me then. Spike’s still asleep now, and I think that there will also most surely be children out there too. I’m pretty certain I mentioned how I seem to be able to scare little kids with my mere presence.”
“I think you’re just being silly. It won’t be that bad. Trust me.”
“Alright, alright. I still think this is a bad idea.”
Twilight opened up her door and went out and waited for me to leave as well. I finally collected myself and ducked outside. My sudden presence was met with several gasps and stares. I was definitely uncomfortable there. I was really wishing I had a shirt on as well. I don’t have a problem with that when it’s just me in my place, but I was outside in front of dozens of ponies and it just left me feeling like my skin was crawling.
I was met with more of the same as the two of us traveled around. I honestly wasn’t a hundred percent sure where she was taking me, but I had my suspicions. About fifteen minutes later, they were confirmed.
Sugar Cube Corner.
“Why is it that I’m suddenly getting this odd feeling that something is just not right?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a giant gingerbread house and you’re asking me what I mean?”
“It’s not really made of gingerbread. It just looks like it.”
“Still, I’m just getting a weird vibe from it. Not weird like the Everfree Forest, but weird as in out of place.”
“I think you’re just imagining things.”
“Maybe...”
We continued up to the front door and Twilight went on inside. I was pleasantly surprised at all the really nice smells coming from inside even as I remained standing outside. A cacophony of delicious aromas assaulted my nostrils and made my appetite even greater. It was quite pleasant if I do say so myself.
“Mr. and Mrs. Cake? Pinkie Pie? Are you here?” I could hear her ask from outside.
“Oh Twilight! Is that you? Sorry, we were still finishing up setting up for the day,” she said from the back of the store.
“That’s alright, Mrs. Cake. I’m just here with a new friend of mine.”
“A new friend!?!”
That is all the warning I received before a pink bullet flew in from the back. It stopped right in front of me in the doorway revealing a pink on pink pony with an ear to ear grin. I had actually expected her to suddenly appear right behind me, but I guess gag conventions made it less likely.
“Wow, I’ve never seen you before! I always like meeting somepony new! My name is Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?”
“Hello, my name is Seth.”
“Seth? That’s a funny name!”
“In the Bible where it came from, my name means Chosen of God.”
“Wow! That sounds really important! It still sounds funny though! Kinda like how kumquat sounds funny! Do you think kumquat sounds funny because I think kumquat sounds funny!”
“Yes, kumquat sounds funny.”
“I know right? But that’s not important right now. What’s important is that you’re new in town! Which means,” she stopped and turned around and brought out a cannon from nowhere. Wow, that looked really odd when it happened right in front of you.
“I’m going to throw you a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party!”
I covered my face with my arms as her party cannon went off in my face. I was expecting to get hit with something as it went off. However, nothing happened. I slowly opened my eyes and was met with a peculiar sight.
Pinkie Pie, her cannon, and all of her decorations were all being suspended in midair. They were all held aloft by a soft, blue light. I looked around to find the source and noticed Twilight looking at me.
“Who the heck is doing this Twilight?”
“I think you are,” she said and pointed at me.
“What? But I can’t use magic!”
“Look at you hand!”
I did as she told and looked at my hand. The tattoo on my left hand was glowing the same blue color as the others. As soon as I noticed, the glow stopped and everything fell to the ground.
“This may be the coolest thing that has ever happened… to…”
As I said that, my vision began to whirl and I fell to the floor.
“Are you okay?” asked Twilight.
“No, but at least this time, it wasn’t Rainbow Dash’s fault,” I said as I lost consciousness.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
The throbbing in my head woke me from my sleep. Why, oh why, must my head hurt so much?
“I really need some ibuprofen right about now.”
“Ibuwhat now?”
I looked slightly to my left and noticed Pinkie Pie standing over me.
“Pinkie Pie?”
She gasped and then started rambling off a bunch of things that I honestly couldn’t understand since she was talking so fast. I probably should have listened more closely to what she said, but my headache promptly reminded me that it was first come, first serve to matters of brain function today. I decided to tell her that I couldn’t understand her, except right when I was about to she bolted out of the room.
I focused on where I was while she was gone. It looked like I was back in the library. Why the hell can’t I seem to go five fucking minutes without something making me pass out like I’m a fuckin’ two year old? Damn it, I hate when I’m angry like this. I start swearing more and I get on everybody’s nerves since I decide to go for verbal low blows. Now is definitely not the time for me to be dealing with-
I stopped.
“Three…two…one…”
“See? I told you he was awake!”
“You’re right. Thanks for keeping an eye on him Pinkie.”
“No problem, Twilight!”
“I don’t suppose you have something like ibuprofen for headaches do you?”
“Ibuwhat now?”
“Don’t Pinkie. I am very unlikable when I have a headache and I don’t want to say something that will make you cry by accident.”
“Oh come on now, Mr. Cranky Pants. You need to turn that frown upside down!”
“Don’t do this Pinkie,” I said elevating my voice.
“You know what will make you feel better?”
“Some food, water, and lots of pain meds?”
“A party!!!”
She emphasized this by blowing a horn about a foot away from my ear.
“Aaaaaahhhhhh!!! PINKIE!!!”
I sat up and grabbed the side of my head as it throbbed horribly. Lights also started to adorn my vision as well.
“Pinkie, I think it would be better if we had that party later, okay?”
“Alright,” I heard her say almost stoically.
“I’ll apologize better to you later Pinkie. Besides, it’ll give you time to get an even better party set up. Does that sound alright?”
“That does sound good,” she said with a renewed vigor in her voice. “Alright, but I want a good apology when you come to that party mister!”
With that said, I literally was able to hear her hop away.
“Do you think I’ll be getting an apology back from her?”
“Perhaps. I don’t think you should have snapped at her like that, though.”
“I get angry and generally less pleasant to be around whenever I have a headache. Right now, it feels like somebody stuck a railroad spike in my head.”
“It’s probably the magic instability.”
“What?” I asked with a mix of anger and confusion.
“It was a buildup of magic in your system mixed with a sudden burst of magic that you used for the first time that comes on as an intense headache. It’s common amongst ponies that use magic for the first time.”
“But I can’t use magic! I’m a human remember? Humans can’t use magic!”
“I know what I saw. You were using magic. You levitated Pinkie Pie and all of her party items. You did that.”
I stopped and thought for a moment about that. I did use magic, didn’t I? My hand even glowed like the horn on a unicorn or alicorn’s head. I connected the dots rather quickly.
“It had to be the coin. That tattoo it gave me must have let me be able to use magic. There’s no way other than that for a bog standard human like me to use magic.”
She gave me an odd look.
“Bog standard? Do you live in a bog or something?”
If my hands weren’t on my head already, I think I would’ve face-palmed at that very second.
“It’s an expression, Twilight. Don’t overthink it.”
“I see. I think we ought to do something about that headache.”
“I wholeheartedly agree. Does that mean you have some painkillers?”
“It’s a headache brought on by magic. Painkillers,” she got on her back hooves and made quotations with her front hooves. How weird was that? “can’t work on those kind of headaches. The best way to help is by releasing magical energy.”
“Terrific,” I said flatly. “How do I go about doing that? More levitation?”
“That can work. You could try transforming or maybe releasing a beam of magic energy from you, or maybe you could-“
“Wait,” I said as I interrupted her, “what was that last one?”
“You could release a concentrated beam of magic energy and release the buildup that way.”
Despite the pain I was feeling, I grew a smile on my face. Knowing I could release it that way made me think of something I had always wanted to do.
“Well, I did levitating earlier. Why don’t I try that magic beam?”
“Sure! We can do that.”
“Is there somewhere secluded that we can do that without worrying about hurting anybody?”
“I know of a few places. Let’s go there now.”
“Glad to hear.”
I stood up to leave, and my headache protested the option. I looked to Twilight to follow her out, but her horn was lit up instead.
“What are you-“
I was interrupted by a flash of purple and suddenly the two of us were on a rocky hillside. From where I was, I couldn’t see any trees or grass nearby. Though, through some of the rocks I did manage to catch a glimpse of Ponyville and, in the distance, Canterlot. I hadn’t seen Canterlot until now and I realized just how odd it looked coming right out of the side of a mountain. It was just another one of those ‘t.v. and real life are different’ moments that I kept encountering.
I was pretty sure that Twilight had said something so I turned away and brought my attention back to her.
“Sorry, I was looking at that odd castle. What were you saying?”
“I was saying that you could use your magic out here without worrying about hurting anypony. By the way, that castle you saw is Canterlot.”
“Canterlot?”
“Yes. That’s where the two princesses rule over Equestria.”
“Interesting. Say, how is it we got here anyway? We just seemed to teleport from the library to here.”
Twilight giggled a little.
“We did teleport here. I did it with my magic.”
“So you can use your magic to teleport you from place to place?”
“I can indeed! Though there are some limitations.”
“Such as?”
“Well, I can only teleport to places I can see or to places that I can remember. Also, I can only teleport a few ponies or things with me when I do. It’s also limited by the amount of magic I can use with it.”
“Interesting, although the flash is a bit annoying. It’s too bad you don’t have something like a portal to make it a little less awkward.”
“A what?”
My headache came on harder as she asked that.
“Can I tell you later? I think my headache is getting worse.”
“I can wait. Let’s get this going!”
She looked around the place and spotted a large boulder about a hundred feet or so away.
“Alright, I want you to aim for that boulder. Just concentrate your magic into your horn and-“
“I think you mean my hand, right?”
She blinked and quickly recovered.
“Right. I’m not used to that. Then for you, try concentrating your magic into your hand and once you feel it tighten up, release it towards the boulder there.”
“Alright. Let’s try this out.”
I did as she told me. I concentrated my magic towards my left hand and tried to gather it there. After a few minutes, I finally started to feel some flow to my hand. At the same time, the tattoo on the back of my hand started to glow as well. I kept gathering magic as much as I could and finally I felt a little pressure in my hand. I then thrust my palm out towards the boulder and a beam of blue magic shot out towards the boulder. There was a bit of recoil, but not really bad. I felt worse firing my dad’s rifles than I did with this.
The beam itself crashed against the boulder and cracked it in a few places. Overall, however, it held up.
“Wow, that’s really good! It usually takes longer to do that for unicorns learning about their magic.”
“I’ve had some visuals before. My headache seems to be a little better. I’m going to try that again.”
“Okay. Be careful!”
I got ready to do it again and looked at my hand. Then, an idea popped into my head. It made me give a toothy grin. The kind of grin that would make people nervous if they saw it.
“Hmmm, why not?”
I moved into a horse stance I’ve seen before. It was perpendicular to the boulder and I faced down the boulder as I did so. I then cupped my hands together near my hip away from my target.
“What are you doing?”
“Something I’ve dreamt about doing for a long time.”
I felt the magic gather in my hand again and willed it into the space in between my hands. It took a bit of work, but it quickly came together.
“Alright, let’s do this.”
I then focused my magic together even harder and started speaking.
“Kaaaaaaa.”
I noticed a glow behind me. I didn’t let it distract me.
“Meeeeee.”
“Haaaaaaa.”
“Meeeeee.”
The light behind me got even brighter. I focused and the magic suddenly tightened in my hands. It was ready. I threw my hands in front of me seeing a head sized ball of light where my hands were.
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”
The light burst forward from my hands towards the boulder. It was slower than the first beam, but I could easily tell there was more power behind it. When it got to the boulder, it offered little resistance. It plowed through the boulder and went on for a solid half-mile before it literally exploded. The shockwave almost knocked me over. In Twilight’s case, it did.
The scene lasted for about ten seconds before the light dissipated. There was dust everywhere. It was really hard to see.
“Are you crazy!?!”
I looked back over to Twilight. She too was covered in dust and dirt.
“I am so sorry! I had no idea it would be that powerful.”
I watched as she glared at me. I stood silently as the dust continued to hang in the air. Then, I finally broke the silence.
“That might just be the coolest moment I will ever have in my life.”
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
The dust had finally settled from my magic beam. It had left quite the impact as there was now a sizeable crater where the beam had hit. I looked back at Twilight who was glaring at me.
“That is why I said we should go somewhere that no ponies would get hurt. That was way more destructive than I thought it would be.”
“No kidding!” she said in a loud and obnoxious voice.
“At least my headache is gone.”
She rolled her eyes at my cheerful remark and huffed at the same time.
“Let’s go ahead and go back to your place," I said with a bit of seriousness. "There might be some explaining that needs to be done so that nobody panics.”
“That’s a good point.”
“Also, I’m not sure you should tell anybody but your friends that I did that or else there might be panic as well.”
“I suppose that depends on what I have to tell them.”
Twilight’s horn glowed again and with another flash we were teleported back to her library home on the ground floor.
“Twilight!”
We both looked over to the source of the voice. It was Spike coming in through the front door. He ran over to Twilight soon after.
“Boy, I’m glad to see you! Did you feel that rumble?”
“Yes, Spike, I felt it too.”
“All the ponies in Ponyville felt it. Do you know what it was?”
“I need you to not freak out when I tell you, alright Spike?”
“Why does that make me even more nervous?”
“Spiiiike.”
“Fine,” Spike groaned out.
“It was our new friend here,” she said and pointed to me.
As Spike gaped at me, I gave him a short wave.
“What!?!”
“Calm down Spike.”
“How can I calm down? You just told me that he just caused the ground to shake!”
“It’s called and earthquake and that was a side-effect,” I interjected.
“You’re not helping , Seth.”
“Sorry.”
“Twilight! What’s going on here?”
“I took him out to the woods near where we encountered those diamond dogs a long while back. It was deserted so he could release his pent up magic that was giving him terrible headaches. However, he released a magic beam so strong that it created an explosion large enough to cause an earthquake.”
Spike’s jaw literally dropped to the floor. That was really odd to look at. What it appeared to be was the bottom of his jaw right behind his back teeth just seemed to expand like rubber. It gave me a nice look at his teeth while it was happening. Those suckers were fangs all the way through. They didn’t seem all that sharp, but Spike was still technically a baby dragon so it made sense. The funny part was when Twilight pulled on his jaw and it snapped back over his face. A quick shake of his head and returned to where it was supposed to go.
“You mean he fired a magic beam so powerful that it shook the earth from all the way out there?”
“I didn’t really mean for it to be that powerful. It sort of just happened that way.”
“That funny stance you were in and the strange words you used didn’t make it seem like it wasn’t meant to be that way.”
“That was just a technique that I was mimicking. I saw it on t.v. before. Honestly, I was just playing around and didn’t think that it would become so powerful.”
“So you were just mimicking something some brute you saw was doing?”
Hearing that got me kind of upset. It made me start talking before I thought about it.
“Hey! Goku is one of the noblest warriors that have ever lived! Don’t you dare besmirch his legacy by calling him a brute!”
Twilight looked like she was warring internally on whether to yell at me or apologize for what she had said. Actually, a few seconds after I saw that, I thought she was probably thinking of a way to word that so she could do both.
“I’m sorry if I offended his good name, but you, however, don’t have an excuse for trying to copy some magic that you saw him do! Besides, I thought humans couldn’t do magic!”
It was an interesting choice of words. I decided to try and break that down.
“First of all, Goku isn’t a human. He’s a saiyan; an alien. Secondly, he wasn’t using magic, he was using life energy called ki. And lastly…”
I trailed off there; unsure of what to say. I decided to apologize instead of trying to make another point.
“Lastly, even though I was mimicking him, I should have been a little more careful about doing it. Magic is something that I shouldn’t be abusing. I’m sorry about accidentally blowing a crater into the ground. I’ll try to be more constructive with my magic from now on.”
Not to mention that I’ll probably never have the chance to use it here again. There isn’t anything around that would warrant such destructive power.
“Well, I’m glad you’ve learned your lesson. Perhaps we could find more constructive ways for you to use magic later. Right now, we need to stop anypony from panicking who might be doing so right now.”
“You go ahead and do that. I don’t think that my presence out there would have a calming effect on them. I’ll stay here and see if I can try to use my magic in a constructive way.”
“You’re probably right. At least about the panicking ponies, anyway. I’ll be back later. Come on, Spike.”
Spike hopped up on Twilight’s back and the two of them ran out the front; closing the door magically as they left.
That left me alone in the library with nothing but my thoughts and my newfound magical talent. It may have been funny when I was doing it, but unleashing my faux Kamehameha wave was a dumb thing to do. It isn’t a toy. It’s a technique that’s been used to kill people. Unleashing it was a mistake. A very cool looking mistake, but a mistake none the less.
Besides, it’s not like I can’t do other things with it. Just from what I’ve seen Twilight and Celestia do, there are a great many things I can do with magic. Levitation, transformation, teleportation, magic shields, locator spells, and a whole slew of other things. I ought to try and feel out some of those things instead of causing chaos with things I shouldn’t be doing.
I decided quickly to try levitation first. I looked at the books on the shelves and picked a book on the end. I knew she was very picky about how she organized these books, even if she changed how she did it once a month. I held out my hand and concentrated on the book. I imagined it being wrapped in magic. Shortly thereafter, my hand glowed and, sure enough, the book glowed as well. I closed my hand slightly and the book slowly came off the shelf and over towards me. I managed to stop it about five feet away from me.
I was pretty pleased with the result. I thought about transforming it, but I wasn’t sure if I could transform it back, so I left it alone. Instead, I tried levitating more of the books. Slowly, but surely, I managed to bring all the books from that shelf over with the first one. Feeling that I had a good handle on that, I started to levitate more and more books from the shelves. Eventually, I had the entire library of books slowly revolving around me.
The whole time it didn’t feel tiring, it just became more and more difficult to concentrate on encompassing each book. It seemed that my magic was about power, concentration, and in a small amount it was also about creativity. I didn’t have a problem so far, but the concentration on each book was a bit more difficult.
I heard a gasp behind me signifying that my time practicing was at an end. It almost made me lose concentration right there.
“Twilight, if that’s you could you take over? It’s starting to get hard concentrating on all of these. I did, however, keep them all in the same order.”
“I ain’t Twilight.”
That, unfortunately, did snap my concentration. I heard a startled yelp as Applejack was buried beneath the books.
“Aheh, sorry about that Applejack.”
I started to unbury her from the books, but she simply shook them off of herself shortly afterwards.
“Again, sorry about that. It turns out that tattoo gave me magic powers and I was practicing by levitating the books.”
“I suppose it’s a might size better than whatcha did before. I reckon that was quite the doozy of a spell you musta done out there for the ground ta shake like it did.”
“Did you see that or did you just feel it?”
“I done saw that all the way out at the farm.”
“I see. Did you pass Twilight out there? She’s supposed to be calming down all the townsfolk.”
“I can’t say that I did.”
“Too bad. Though if I keep making every pony in Ponyville scared of me, then who will show up to my welcome party?”
“Heh. Sounds like you met Pinkie Pie.”
“Yes I did. In fact, that’s how I found out I could do magic. Why would anybody have a working cannon just sitting around let alone use it for parties?”
“That’s just Pinkie being Pinkie. She don’t mean ya no harm.”
“I didn’t know that at the time. All I saw was a cannon suddenly pointed at me and I just threw my arms up in front of my face. That’s when I caught everything with magic. It was really odd. After that, I blacked out.”
“Heh, you seem ta be doin that a whole lot dontcha?”
I chuckled a bit from that.
“Yes I do at that. I don’t think I’ve fallen asleep of my own volition at all since I’ve been here.”
“See anything new this time around?”
I almost blurted out that I wasn’t sure what she was asking me, but I managed to stop myself before that. I decided to answer her with a few scenes from the show.
“I do remember a few things that I didn’t before. I remember a hedge maze, I think I saw Pinkie Pie wearing a chicken suit, Rainbow Dash was getting carried around by a turtle, and there was you and her running past some trees. I think Rainbow Dash must have been hurt somehow since her wings were tied to her body.”
Applejack flashed a hint of recognition, but stayed quiet. I decided to keep going with a few more stories.
“There was also some pony I didn’t recognize leading Spike around with some gems, this one black horse that looked like she was made out of Swiss cheese, and Fluttershy was yelling at a dragon. That doesn’t really seem like something she would do though, does it?”
“No I reckon it don’t sound a lot like Fluttershy at all,” she said with a hint of apprehension.
Yeah, I think I got her attention with this.
“Some of those do sound familiar though. I suppose ah could ask ta others for ya.”
“That sounds nice of you to do that for me, but you don’t really need to. What I’d really like is for you to help me get these books back on the shelf before Twilight comes back.”
"It’s much too late for that now.”
I looked up from Applejack to see Twilight in the doorframe next to Spike. I chuckled nervously. Applejack outright giggled at the situation.
“Well, too late for that then. Can I plead for mercy?”
“Your plea has been considered and your punishment has thereby been lessened.”
“You are most gracious judge Twilight.”
That drew a quick laugh from all of them.
“I’ll go ahead and get started on shelving all of your books now.”
“That is not your punishment.”
I gave her a blank stare.
“Alright, then if that isn’t what my punishment is then what is it?”
“Oh you’ll be doing the shelving again once you get back.”
“Get back from where?” I asked apprehensively.
“You’ll do that when you get back from town square. It’s the place you’ll be giving your public apology for causing the townsfolk to nearly panic.”
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
“Concentration is the key to making it work. Most magic requires concentration to function. Therefore, it is essential to concentrate on the spells you want to use whenever you use them.”
“I understand, Twilight. This is just a little harder than what I was doing earlier.”
“If you’re talking, then you’re not concentrating.”
I focused harder and harder, and finally I got the desired outcome. I changed the twigs, leaves, and rocks on Spike into a full gentleman’s look.
“Nice going, Seth!” said Spike.
It was another step in the right direction for me learning how to use magic.
Basically, after Twilight Sparkle had asked me about that invisibility spell, I had told her how I had done it. Rather, I told her how I pretty much lucked into it. It got her to wondering how it was possible for me to just generate a random spell without even trying. I went into how it was just a natural feeling for me since I was usually invisible to most people with almost no effort. It was sort of like my special talent.
That whole lack of effort business got her into how concentration was the key to magic. Not all magic, mind you, but almost every spell required it. Of course, she told me how she was going to teach me how to properly use magic right as we opened the door to the library. It was quite the nice setup for the books still lying around on the floor. After the nice punch line and some good laughter, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, and I went to helping put all the books back on the shelves in some brand new order that I’m pretty sure she just made up on the spot.
After that was finished, Applejack excused herself saying she had to get back to work on the farm. I had wondered what it was she had meant to do here today seeing as how I don’t remember her even talking to Twilight. Then again, I didn’t really remember most of the trip to the town hall, so she may have talked to her during that time. Oh well, this place isn’t static. Things are going to happen in the world around me even if I’m not there to see it or hear it.
Upon Applejack’s departure, my stomach once again made its presence known. This time, however, Twilight teleported herself away and then returned a few minutes later with some cookies and water. It wasn’t exactly something that was diabetes friendly, but then again I’m not a very well controlled diabetic. After all, I drink Pepsi every day. I then face-palmed internally. That’s why I had that headache. I hadn’t had any Pepsi in what I was sure was twenty four hours at least. It was a caffeine headache. Not some convoluted magical headache, just a regular self-induced one. Though, it did seem to go away fairly quickly. At least that's how it seemed to be to me anyway.
While I was eating the cookies she had given me, Twilight began talking to me about magic. Of course, it sounded more like she was giving a dissertation on the subject. Basically, the way she explained it to me was that magic was inherent in all things in this world. It was a type of potential energy found inside one’s self and, to a lesser extent, in all objects. However, most living beings simply did not have access to it. If you did, about half the time those who managed to use it found that it was inconsistent or incredibly weak. The other half of it was pretty much mostly unicorns or some other form of creature that stumbled upon it yet had enough talent to make it work properly. In other words, it was pretty much just unicorns or alicorns with the ability to use it properly.
That said even unicorns were broken into subsets. There were those who only learned spells that were attuned to their special talents. These unicorns didn’t learn anything else other than spells that would help them with their talents and didn’t bother with anything else minus basic levitation. About nine out of every ten unicorns were like that.
The other subset was unicorns like her who were more specialized in magic in general. These unicorns trained their magic more consistently and thus were more powerful and could use many different types of spells. Even though they were less common, they still had schools specially tailored to them in order to help them practice their magic.
When I asked about that, she told me about her test with hatching Spike’s egg. Interestingly enough, when she described it to me, it sounded like they were actually giving her a specifically harder test than what they usually give. Apparently, the usual test involved a display of the various spells one could use and if it was determined that they had not only a variety of spells, but a certain level of aptitude of those spells, then they would be accepted. Her test was to hatch an egg. A dragon egg. As far as I could tell from her, no pony had ever done it before and they were asking her to do it right on the spot. I couldn’t tell if they were being snobs or if it was all part of a grand cosmic design to make her noticed by Celestia to bring on the forthcoming events. I had honestly taken out my coin and flipped it on the spot. It came up in favor of the latter.
Hanging over all unicorns, were the alicorns. Alicorns had superior magic to all unicorns. Basically, alicorns had dominion over a specific force of nature which was their special talent. Celestia was the power of the sun, Luna was the power of the moon, and Cadence was the power of love. I asked about why there were so few alicorns, but she had no answer. That was too bad. I would’ve loved to blow that secret all over the internet if I ever got back home.
With the history of magic in pony culture out of the way, and I might add it took way too long to hear all of that, interesting, but long, she began to tell me how to use magic. The whole concept was to envision, concentrate, and create with some knowledge about fundamental laws of nature to take into account for stronger or more intricate spells. Again, the talk was interesting, but long. At least this one had more practical application to it.
At that point, she wanted to have me demonstrate the invisibility spell. I did, and after a few more demonstrations she managed to copy the spell herself. With that spell now learned, she was about to continue on with her lecture. However, I made a comment on how she ought to expand on that spell to make others invisible. It was too bad that I couldn’t tell her about other moments I knew of because I was feigning ignorance. I would have told her how it would be a good idea to try and expand her spells to be useful in many different situations. She could be masterful with spells if she just put in some effort refining those spells.
I was really getting aggravated about how I couldn’t tell her that I knew her. It would make telling things to her so much easier. I was honestly surprised I hadn’t blown anything yet. I wasn’t one to let secrets out, but it’s hard when you want to tell someone something, but you can’t because you’ll come off looking like a crazy stalker.
After letting her think about that for a while, I decided to interrupt her again to move things along with me. She wanted to start off with levitation, but I commented that I had already figured that one out. I was a bit surprised she had forgotten about that. Then, I looked at my watch and noted that she had been talking for almost three hours. As interesting as this was, I needed to move on to something interesting.
She then decided to try out magical transformation. The first thing that popped into my head was Twilight transforming into some magical girl from Japan. Then, I realized that I was going to do the magic and unfortunately had a vision of me transforming that I was sure would haunt my dreams for the next week or so.
Thankfully, Twilight went on to describe what she wanted to transform that helped me get those thoughts out of my head. Basically, Spike was told to go out and get some leaves, a rock, and a branch and I was to turn them into formal wear. I remembered her trying out that trick in the beginning of that one episode where Pinkie’s ‘Pinkie Sense’ was introduced. It took me about ten minutes to get it to work.
“Lookin’ sharp there Spike!”
“You know it!” he replied.
“Ha ha very funny you two,” Twilight interjected, “but now that you’ve finished with that, it’s time to hit the hay. We’ve all had quite the day.”
I let the transformation drop and, of course, the top hat magically transformed back into a rock about a foot above his head and crashed down like, well, like a rock.
“Why does that keep happening to me?”
“You two have done this one before I take it,” I said as Twilight chuckled a little.
“Yeah," Spike said with some exasperation. "Twilight was trying it out once and we got interrupted by Pinkie Pie and the rock smashed me in the head. Then, we tried it out again a week later and when she was done the rock landed on my head again.”
“So, when you knew that happened before, why did you do it again?”
Spike looked like he was going to reply, but suddenly looked around like he hadn’t even thought about it. Finally, he sighed and spoke up.
“Never mind. Forget it.”
“I can do that. Now, go ahead and listen to Twilight and head off to bed.”
Reluctantly, Spike made his way up the stairs amidst some grumbling.
“You need to get some sleep too, Seth. You haven’t had a good night’s sleep since you’ve arrived here.”
“Yeah, between Rainbow Dash knocking me out, and Pinkie Pie nearly giving me a heart attack with her cannon, subsequently causing me to faint, I’m pretty sure I would be completely sleep deprived by now.”
We both chuckled at that, but it got me to thinking.
“You know, Pinkie never did throw me that party. Is that something I should be expecting soon?”
“Probably. Pinkie loves her parties.”
It made me wonder if there would be a pink pony in my face when I woke up. It also made me think of someone I didn’t see today.
“Fluttershy never did come by to visit me today, did she?”
“Oh, well she was probably busy helping out all of her little animal friends today and was so busy that she couldn’t come to see you,” she stated a bit weakly.
“More likely, she didn’t come because she was too worried about seeing me on her own. I have that problem too.”
“You do kind of remind me of Fluttershy at times. Other times, you remind me more of Rainbow Dash. Like when you fired that large beam of magic. When you were thinking of how cool that was, it reminded me of her when she was showing off something to us.”
“Game recognize game I suppose.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s just a saying I heard once that I just finally got to use. I’ve never really had any game until I came here. Things just seem to be working out that way. It doesn’t really matter that much, though. Anyway, shouldn’t you be following your own advice and trying to get some sleep as well?”
“You’re right. Good night, Seth.”
“Good night, Twilight.”
As she walked up to her room, I went over to the couch and lied down with my hands behind my head. The couch itself was too small for me. With my head at one end, my feet were actually still on the floor. It wasn’t very comfortable for me. Obviously, this was made with ponies in mind, but I couldn’t help thinking that maybe this was a chair. I had remembered Rarity doing her fake woe-is-me rants and pulling a lounging chair from out of nowhere for her to lie on. That’s probably not what it’s called, but I didn’t care what it really was called. She was able to lie down on that without a problem. Also, the bed in Fluttershy’s house was big enough that I didn’t even have my feet hanging off the end. Therefore, this was most likely a chair and not a couch.
That made realize something else as well. I was thinking about the difference between a chair and a couch from Equestria for five minutes. What. The. Hell? Am I really stuck thinking about stupid things like this?
I breathed slowly for a few minutes to calm myself down. It didn’t really matter. This is what life is. Every moment isn’t going to be some adventure where I jump through hoops and learn a new lesson about friendship. Things were obviously going to get boring at times. I wish I had my phone to look at my pictures or my DS to play some games. Of course, if I relied on those too much here, then the batteries would die and then I’d be in the same predicament.
Perhaps I should use this time to look at my predicament. I got sent here with nothing but my pants and a shiny coin. I wound up transported to the Everfree Forest. I was lucky not to run into any dangerous animals. I made my way out and had a shocked senseless moment with Rainbow Dash.
Then, after waking up, I made my way to Fluttershy’s place. I got a little food and some water. I got knocked out by Rainbow Dash.
I awoke in Fluttershy’s bed. I went downstairs and met most of the main characters. I got an apology from Rainbow Dash. I got questioned by Twilight Sparkle. I nearly got every one of us zapped by malfunctioning magic. I got questioned some more. I walked to Ponyville. I spent the night getting questioned again by Twilight Sparkle. I went to Sugarcube Corner. I nearly got ‘partied’ in the face by Pinkie Pie. I used magic for the first time by levitating Pinkie Pie and her stuff. I then passed out from using magic.
I honestly expected Rainbow Dash to come flying through the window and then making me use my magic to stop her from running into me. Although, she did say that she had something to do today. I suppose that would make sense that she didn’t show up today.
Focus…
After my mess with Pinkie, I awoke in Twilight’s place. I went into the hills to practice with magic. I fired a magical version of a Kamehameha wave. I had to get past my freaking out to give a public apology to the citizens of Ponyville for making them panic. I sort of forced my way into being Twilight’s student. I hope she isn’t mad about that, by the way. I helped clean up the mess I made of the library. I learned about magic for hours. I practiced magic for about ten minutes. And finally, I watched as everyone went to bed and then I followed suit.
“Man, have I had one hell of a few days here.”
“Indeed you have, Seth.”
I jumped off the couch in surprise and landed on my back. I whipped around and got to one knee to see who it was. It didn’t take long.
“I’m sorry that I startled you. I didn’t mean to do so. Allow me to introduce myself.”
“My name is Princess Celestia.”
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
I just knelt there continuing to look at the princess. I honestly thought that seeing the others was a precursor to seeing her up close. That was barely the case. Or perhaps I should say that was exactly the case. Bah! Whatever.
Celestia was easily about five and a half feet tall and the horn on her head was about two and a half to three times bigger than Twilight’s horn. Her mane was shining with four different colors that just popped out at you. Celestia herself actually seemed to have a slight glow to her as well. Her white coat seemed to give a nice shine that was a little painful to the eyes with the darkness we were both in. Even her cutie mark actually seemed to waver a little like it was giving off heat. Finally, her wings looked larger than Rainbow Dash's which made me wonder if she could actually fly faster than her or if she could just stay aloft using her wings alone.
All in all, she was quite an impressive specimen to look at.
“It is very sweet of you to think that.”
I instantly knew what happened. It’s one of those things you know just by being immersed in scifi culture.
“So, you can read minds?”
“Only when I am concentrating on them alone. You were not saying anything so I took a peek.”
“Is it just thoughts, or can you see images as well?”
“It is only thoughts. Images would require scrying into your mind.”
“I see. So, why did you decide to come and see me now? Why didn’t you wait until Twilight was awake?”
“I had just finished my royal business for the day in Canterlot. Now was merely the first opportunity to come and see you myself.”
That makes sense. Celestia was always the one pony I had a hard time getting a handle on. Everyone else was sort of simplistic. Celestia, however, had been around for a minimum of one thousand years. That can give you a lot of depth to dive into.
I finally climbed to my feet and continued chatting with the princess.
“Alright, now that you’re here may I ask about your visit? I suppose you’re here to observe the strange being?”
“In a sense, yes. Unlike the other ponies, my sister and I have seen humans before.”
That was a bit surprising.
“You and your sister have seen humans before?”
“Indeed we have. You are, however, the first one to appear in almost three thousand years or so.”
My jaw almost dropped at that.
“You’ve been around for three thousand years?”
“I have been around for much longer than that.”
“Really? How long exactly?”
“I was born almost fourteen thousand years ago, and my sister was born a few hundred years after that.”
I think my brain nearly broke at hearing that.
“I would appreciate that you do not tell any of my little ponies about that.”
“Why not?” I asked with my voice creaking a little.
“It is not something we wish to discuss with them.”
“Yet, you told me this with little prompting. Am I missing something here?”
My voice was still creaking with disbelief.
“Humans were more frequent here in Equestria in the past. They were all mighty and noble beings. However, there were less and less females with every generation and unfortunately they died out. Many of their influences are still felt throughout Equestria to this day as a reminder of this.”
“That would explain a few things,” I pondered out loud. “So, you would trust me with this, and yet why don’t you wish to tell the other ponies about this?”
“That is because we do not wish for them to try to become alicorns themselves.”
“I think I might want to sit down for this one.”
I pivoted and sat back down on the couch, chair, whatever it was and placed my chin in my hand.
“You see, alicorns are not born as alicorns. We are born as normal ponies. Only those with rare special talents or with very high magic can become alicorns. These ponies are sought out and trained to see if their talent is strong enough to survive metamorphosis. Only one or two every thousand years are determined to be suitable for this task. I had almost thought that Princess Cadence would be the only one to come along this time.”
That made me think of Twilight.
“Twilight said she was your personal student. Does that mean you think she is capable of it?”
“The things she has done make me believe that she may be able to succeed. There are, however, more trials that she must overcome before I am certain.”
“I have no doubt in my mind that she is capable of doing it. I mean she’s helped me work with my magic fairly well so far.”
The princess gave me a quizzical look.
“I was told in Twilight’s letter that humans could not perform magic. Even the humans of old could not properly harness it.”
“Normally no, but for some reason I’m capable of doing it. It happened by accident the first time and now I’m trying to practice it so I can use it better. I’m not doing too bad a job at it either.”
“May I see this magic you can perform?”
“Of course you can. Let me try levitating something for you.”
I looked around and spotted a vase filled with flowers that were in the middle of the room. In hindsight, that seemed like an odd choice to have in a library. I pointed my hand at it and concentrated slightly. The flowers then glowed and each one rose out in turn and floated over to my hand. I then closed my hand, grabbing the flowers, and the glow ceased. I turned to give her the flowers.
“Here you go, Celestia. Some nice flowers for you.”
As I peered around the flowers that I foolishly made block my view from her, I noticed she had an expression that I wasn’t expecting to see. It looked like a mix of anger, confusion, and deep thought.
“It is not possible,” I heard her mumble.
“Are you alright? What’s not possible? I thought I did a pretty good job with that.”
She looked up and used her magic to levitate the flowers back to the vase. Then, she moved closer to me and stared intensely. It was a bit unnerving. I wanted to say something, but it felt like if I did she was going to do something that I didn’t like.
“That magic,” she said finally after a few minutes of this, “is not something you should be capable of using.”
I honestly couldn’t help from rolling my eyes.
“I think I covered that. Humans aren’t supposed to be able to use magic.”
“That is not what I mean. The magic you have should not be able to be controlled like this. It is chaos magic.”
“Chaos magic? Is that different from regular magic somehow?”
“Chaos magic is rarely found in nature and is not capable of being controlled by any creature with one exception. And that one exception is incased in stone right now.”
I looked at the tattoo on my hand. That was really odd. I have chaos magic? I thought the only thing capable of that was-
Then it hit me. It hit me hard and fast. The being in my room. The one that had seemed so familiar, but I couldn’t place it. The one the princess said was currently encased in stone.
It was Discord.
“So, you know who he is?”
I looked at the princess. Her expression was no longer mixed. It was just angry.
“That was the thing in my room. It was the thing that sent me here.”
“Maybe so, but you knew his name, and I didn’t tell it to you.”
What? I didn’t say that out loud. I thought it.
Oh wait.
“You read my mind again.”
“You have magic you shouldn’t be capable of using and you know Discord by name. There is one conclusion that I can draw from that,” she said as her horn started to glow.
“Well, uh, I don’t think it’s the right one, but, heh, I'll, uh, I’ll let you say what you think it is and then please don’t do anything rash. Please.”
“You are an ally of Discord and you wish to free him.”
“That is completely not true. I mean I know who he is, but there are a lot of people who know who he is.”
“And how would these people know who he is if you yourself said that you have never seen him before?”
This was not the best time for my story to come unraveling. Panic is not a good speech motivator.
“I can tell you, but I don’t want anyone else to hear. Can we speak somewhere that no ponies will hear us?”
“As you wish,” she said in a deep tone that really got under my skin.
A quick flash later and we were in a different place. It took me a few seconds to realize that we were in Canterlot Castle. The throne room to be exact. It was quite grand, but as I looked around I noticed how dark it was with nobody else in there. Neither the banners on the walls nor the flowers along the walls or the carpet stretching to the throne were popping out like I had thought them to do.
“Nopony will be able to hear you in this room. Now speak before I have you dealt with.”
“Alright, I will. Just be open okay?”
“Your time is lessening.”
“Okay, okay. First, yes I know Discord. There are a great many humans who know about Discord. There are also a great many humans who know about you. They don’t know about many of those, uh, things you told me yourself. They also know about your sister and the ponies who wield the Elements of Harmony and a lot of other things. They know and I know because we’ve seen them happen.”
Her expression changed to one of confusion, but her horn kept glowing. She then quickly regained her angry look.
“You have been spying on us?”
“It wasn’t spying! We were just watching you.”
“Watching us without our knowledge or consent is spying!”
“How were we supposed to know we needed your consent? We didn’t think you were real!”
“How can you spy on something when you think it is not real?”
There was no way around this. I had to spill.
“Because the people who were observing you thought that you were merely moving pictures.”
Celestia’s horn ceased glowing and her face was scrunched up with confusion. Boy did that look odd.
“Moving… pictures?”
“Yes, that’s right. Moving pictures. Those are basically pictures that someone draws on paper, and then keep drawing them over and over until they do an entire sequence. When you speed them up, it looks as if they are moving in real time. Then, if you add sound to those pictures, it looks as if they are the ones talking. When all of that is combined, you get a show of moving pictures. It can be used educationally or in an entertainment capacity.”
“Oh, so like a movie then,” she surmised.
Oh, right. I had forgotten about that. I saw that during the episode where they were trying to create that massive tornado in order to send up water to Clousdale.
“Yes, it’s sort of like that, only it isn’t catching real things happening. Instead, it’s like making things up and presenting them in a similar fashion.”
I looked at her as she absorbed this. Her posture wasn’t as aggressive as before, yet she looked as though if I tried anything she would be ready for it.
“So, if what you are saying is true, then you know a great many secrets.”
“I only know about this place from the time Nightmare Moon escaped to the time of the end of Princess Cadence’s wedding.”
That did bring me to a question that had been bugging me.
“By the way, what did happen to you when Nightmare Moon returned? It was rather vague about what happened to you.”
“I surrendered and let her capture me.”
...I did not expect her to answer me so candidly.
“What?”
“I knew that the only way to stop her was for Twilight to make herself some friends and for them to harness the Elements of Harmony. I needed them before to defeat my dear sister, and I knew that fighting her would be pointless. She would instead bring herself to the elements to stop them and thus help reveal their true nature.”
Wow. Now that is some impressive insight. Then again, she probably had decades to prepare for this so it was a great deal easier to plan.
“Actually, I was prepared to use the elements myself once more, until Twilight sent me her letter. I had been planning to send her off to make some friends anyway and this was a grand opportunity I couldn't pass up. I knew then that she would be able to wield them now instead of myself in a manner that would bring about a satisfying conclusion.”
Again with the mind reading. Although, I think I’m understanding this better.
“I don’t think you’ve stopped reading my mind since I’ve arrived in the castle. Am I right?”
“Indeed. I would not want to lower my guard to a potential threat. So long as you have that magic, then you are a threat.”
“Oh come on! It’s not like I’m the one who gave me this magic!”
“Perhaps. If your story is true then I may no longer consider you a threat.”
An idea popped into my head.
“What about that scrying spell you mentioned? You can use it on me to show you that I’m telling the truth.”
She furrowed her brow for a moment.
“It is too risky. I can control what I see when I look into a ponies mind. I know this because I have had many who were willing to let me practice this spell on them in order to perfect it.”
“Practice makes perfect. I was telling Twilight this. Perhaps you should tell her that. It will probably have more impact coming from you.”
“If I tell her that, then she will practice the same spell over and over again and she will never truly think it is perfect. By thinking that, she will never work on another spell again. However, we are getting off topic. I cannot attempt a scrying spell on you. I would not be able to control what I see.”
“Good point. There are things you do not want to see in there.”
“Although, where Discord is concerned I may not have another option. Chaos magic can make things unpredictable in more ways than you can believe.”
Heh. She just changed her mind on mind reading. Oh, her horn started to glow once more.
“Words of warning before you do this,” I said seriously.
She looks at me expectantly.
“What has been seen, cannot be unseen.”
“I do not understand what you are talking about.”
“You will soon enough.”
Her horn flared again and everything went white.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
What the Hell is Wrong With ME?
The brightness finally died down after I’m not even sure how long. I looked at my watch. I could barely see it through the blobs in my vision. It read 5:28 p.m. I think it had been about ten minutes. I wasn’t really sure since I didn’t quite remember when Celestia had come to Twilight’s treehouse.
Celestia.
I looked over to where Celestia was last. I was honestly surpised at what I saw.
The first thing I noticed was the floor. She had emptied the contents of her stomach. The sight of it had instantly made me feel guilty. I looked up into her eyes. They were mere pinpricks. I almost couldn’t see where they were against the white of her eyes. Her mane, which was usually flowing behind her, was still and flattened to her as was her tail. I could have mistaken her for a statue if not for the occasional twitch from her eyebrow.
I could only imagine what she had seen. The only consolation I could think of was that I never looked at any beastiality or any Rule 34 of My Little Pony. The only fetish I really had was big boobs and, for reasons I couldn’t understand, hypnotized girls. In all honesty, I wonder if she would’ve preferred it if I had looked at beastiality. Seeing some horse studs may have kept her sane.
Wait. What the fuck am I saying?
I started to walk towards her. It seemed she didn’t notice anything around her as I moved closer. I kept walking and swerved around the pool of vomit. I then bent my knees a little to look her in the eyes. She was still staring straight ahead so I gently moved her head to face me. Her eyes were still the same.
“Celestia,” I whispered.
Nothing.
“Celestia,” I whispered again only slightly louder.
Still nothing.
“Celestia,” I said in my normal level of voice.
By this time, I realized that I probably wasn’t going to get through to her by talking. What to do? Hidden finger jutsu? No, that would be way too creepy. Yell ‘This is Equestria!’ and kick her in the side? Funny for all of five seconds, but not good for my continued survival. Start bench pressing her until she snaps out of it herself? It would be another endurance test for me to try, but again who knows how she’ll react when she snaps out of it. Doodle on her? What am I, five? On that note, why the hell am I coming up with all these retarded ass ideas?
“When in doubt, do what your gut tells you.”
I looked down at my stomach.
“So, gut, what do you have to say for yourself?”
I grab my gut with my right hand.
“First off, I want a cheeseburger,” I said in a slightly shrill voice.
“You always want a cheeseburger.”
“No I don’t. Sometimes I want a burrito!”
“Alright, point to you.”
“Oh! Why don’t you give her a hug?”
“When in doubt, hug it out?” I said almost sarcastically.
“Of course! They like friendship, right? I bet they love hugs!”
My guts' advice given, I look up to check on her once more. She was still looking the same. Looking around to see if anyone else was around to witness my display of madness, I then dropped to one knee, wrapped my hands around her neck, and squeezed softly.
I really hoped this worked. I mean, I may like hugs, but after a while, a hug can get awkward. I also couldn’t see her eyes so I had no idea if this was helping her or not.
“It is helping,” came a meek voice.
It was Celestia. It seems she finally broke out of that trance.
“Are you alright, Celestia?”
“I will be. Those images in your mind are truly something that I hope not to see again.”
“What has been seen-“
“Cannot be unseen,” she finished. “I understand that much more clearly now.”
“I’m sorry you had to see all of that.”
“I will manage. I have seen many things in my time in these lands, but the things that you have seen and the things you have imagined may be even beyond my comprehension.”
“You know, coming from a possibly immortal being, that’s a pretty cool thing to hear.”
Celestia finally pulled away from me. She then looked me in the eyes. Her look of absolute shock was replaced with the same look she had as when we first met at Twilight’s place.
“I know that you are not a threat to my little ponies.”
She snickered a little after hearing herself.
“I suppose for now, every time I say that, it will be a little humorous.”
“Outside context humor will do that. So, you know I’m not a threat. That’s a good thing.”
“I know that.”
She leaned into my face. Her tone became more serious.
“I know you. I know everything that you have done. I know everything you have ever said. I know everything that you have ever felt.”
She paused before continuing.
“And I know that you have no friends.”
That was an odd stopping place.
“I do have-“
“You have had friends in the past. Now, however, is a different matter. You merely have acquaintances. You have no real connections to these people. You have love for your family, but even that is beginning to fade to mere familiarity. In time, you will see them as strangers and eventually you will be alone.”
“Wow that was pretty harsh.”
“It seems that Twilight will be your teacher in more ways than one, Seth.”
“Uh, that was a bit random. What do you mean by that?”
“You are to resume training your magic with Twilight Sparkle. In addition, you are now a student of hers in the study of the magic of friendship.”
I honestly had nothing that I could think to follow that up with.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Celestia smirked at me.
“I am most serious,” she began in a low tone. “Discord said that you had a big journey ahead of you. I do not know of what he plans to do with you, but I will not send you back without a brand new look upon your life.”
Her horn lit up and she fired a beam at me. I was momentarily blinded and when I could see again, I could also feel something different. I looked down and noticed that I was wearing new clothes. I was now in new full-length black slacks with a white stripe down the side. Covering my torso was a blue tank top. I hated collars so I never really wore anything with one. I was also pretty sure that she even changed my underwear, but I wasn’t about to check that in front of her.
I was also finally wearing some comfortable shoes and socks. I honestly didn’t feel that bad without them, but now that I was wearing something I could feel what I was missing out on.
Last, but not least, on my head was a sports cap. I took it off to get a better look at it. It was a dark blue hat with the word ‘Indianapolis’ stitched on the bill. On the front, there was a white horseshoe. Lastly, on the back, there was the word ‘Colts’ stitched into it just like on the front.
It was almost exactly like the one I had back home. That one was my fourth hat now. I had bought it when I took a trip to Indianapolis to watch a game there. It had been a pretty awesome souvenir. Besides, I had to finally retire my old ‘Super Bowl XLI’ championship one after getting pressured by my family that it was looking a bit haggard, so I started wearing this one.
You know what? Getting a new Colts hat from a princess was probably the best souvenir I didn’t know I could have asked for here... Well, maybe another Super Bowl victory or two couldn't hurt either.
“You know, I can still hear your thoughts and you are rambling on a little too much.”
“You have my memories. You know my spirit runs deep for my favorite team even though I’m living in Kansas now.”
“I believe I am more of a Broncos fan myself.”
“What!?! Why?”
“Oh, no reason.”
She then let slip a wry smile. Oh no. Don’t tell me I did it. I do not believe this.
“Oh God, I created Trollestia.”
“Perhaps,” she said with a growing smirk.
“My new clothes aren’t going to disappear sometime during the day tomorrow are they?”
She put her hoof to her chin.
“That would have been quite amusing. It is too bad I did not think of it.”
“So that whole student in friendship thing was a joke wasn’t it?”
She brought her hoof back to the floor.
“No. That is not a joke. While you are in Equestria, you will learn from Twilight about magic and friendship. While you are there, you will also tell her what you know about her and her friends.”
Quick. Get me a vinyl record to scratch... You know who you are...
“You want me to what now?”
She smiled as she spoke.
“You are going to tell them about what you know about them. You are also to tell them how you acquired this knowledge.”
“Are you nuts? No disrespect or anything, but that just sounds like a recipe for disaster! Do you have any idea what they will do if they think that every little thing they do is being watched as they do it? Especially, uh, whatserface.”
“Fluttershy,” she said helpfully.
“Fluttershy, yes. Thank you. She’s even worse with people’s eyes upon her than I am and that is saying something.”
“Indeed it is,” she said; her smile never leaving her face. “However, the road to being a friend begins with honesty. You have to tell them the truth. Otherwise, how can you build a truthful friendship with them?”
“I know it would be nice to have a friendship with them, but you’re telling me to do something that is against my very nature.”
“I could always resort to blackmail.”
“What?” I said flatly.
“I know all of your secrets. Even the ones that you have forgotten. Some of these secrets will garner you no quarter for the rest of your time here. We both know that you would not know what you are doing in the wilderness. You would not last very long.”
“Trollestia indeed,” I mumbled. “Fine. I will tell them.”
“You will promise me that you will tell them within twenty four hours.”
“Nghhh…”
If there was one thing that she knew would guarantee me to make me do it, it was that. I may lie sometimes and say things that I end up forgetting or things along that line. However, when I actually say ‘I promise’ when I do something, she knows that I would rip a bar off of the gates of Heaven and use it to create an actual North Pole if I said I promised I would. It is the only word of honor I vowed to myself that I would keep no matter what. The one thing I could count on to keep myself from becoming a total nothing in my own eyes. She also knew to word it so I couldn’t use it for later instead of having to do it now.
“You are aware I am still reading your thoughts right now?”
I held my arms out with my palms up.
“Let…It…Gooooooo…”
“Hurry up and promise me.”
I dropped my arms to my sides and hung my head low like I was used to.
“Fine. I promise.”
“You promise what?”
“I promise to tell the girls about how I know about them within twenty four hours,” I gritted out like I was a five year old.
“Good. Check your watch so you know how long you have.”
I checked my watch like she said. It read 5:55 p.m.
“Do you have a clock I can look at to-“
“I believe I do have a clock for that,” she interrupted.
Her horn glowed and there was a bright flash. A second later, I was floating three feet above the floor in Twilight’s library. It took me a few seconds to realize why I was still floating instead of on the floor already.
“I fucking hate you right now, Trollestia.”
With those words spoken, I fell face first into the floor.
“What was that?” I heard Twilight shout from upstairs.
“It’s just me getting magically dumped on my face.”
I hadn’t bothered getting up yet. It just seemed frivolous.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Celestia thought it would be funny to teleport me above the floor and not on it.”
“Princess Celestia! You met with the Princess!?!”
“Pretty much, yes.”
“Well? What did you think of her?”
“She seemed nice,” I said sarcastically.
“Oh yes, she is. She is a wonderful ruler and a great teacher.”
“That’s nice.”
“So, what is it you two talked about?”
“A little of this, a little of that, and she told me to talk to you and your friends about something tomorrow. We can do it whenever, but it needs to be sometime tomorrow.”
“Princess Celestia wanted you to talk to us? Is it serious?”
“Sort of. Just bring all your element friends for a chat. There isn’t a rush other than for tomorrow.”
“I’ll be sure to let them know. You’ll help too Spike.”
I heard a loud snore of a response.
“Spike! Come on!”
Again, All I heard was snoring. I pushed myself up to my knees and looked up. All I saw was the back end of Twilight.
“BRUUUGH!!!”
That was an odd sound. It was kind of like a belch.
“A letter from the Princess!”
Ah. That would explain it.
“Dear Seth, in addition to the matters we discussed I wish you to know that I will work on a method to return you home after you finish with your lessons from Twilight. By lessons, I mean the original ones not your new ones. Those lessons may take a lifetime and you would undoubtedly wish to return home at some point. I will look into the matter personally. Best wishes, Princess Celestia.”
A way home definitely sounds good.
“P.S.: I will be sharing my newly acquired knowledge with Princess Luna as well. Not everything, mind you, but enough to help out while each of us are performing our royal duties. I’m sure you’ll understand.”
“Oh terrific. That sounds just like the best idea ever.”
“What does?”
“Trust me, Twilight; you really don’t want to know.”
“But-“
“If Celestia herself didn’t take it well, then I doubt that you want to follow her there.”
Twilight’s words seemed to catch in her throat. Hearing that her teacher had trouble with something seemed to bring a war of emotions across her face.
“If it helps you any, I’ll be talking about it tomorrow. For right now though, I just want to sleep of my own accord.”
I placed my hand on the chair and rolled off of my knees and right onto it.
“I’ll be waiting for those answers tomorrow.”
I took off my hat and placed it over my head.
“What kind of hat is that?”
“Tomorrow Twilight!"
Author's Note
A quick note: I was going to finish this chapter after getting sent back and end with the Trollestia comment, but I felt that the chapter was a bit short.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
I woke up to the most uncomfortable feeling in my neck. It had gone incredibly stiff overnight. I was hesitant to get up at the time since I knew this day was going to drag on, but the pain in my neck would definitely keep me up anyway. I hesitantly rose to a sitting position and bobbed my head back and forth and all around. Hearing some satisfying cracks in my neck, I slipped my shoes onto my feet, grabbed my hat, and rose to my feet.
The first thing I realized was that Twilight wasn't there. Neither was Spike. I went and checked my watch. It read 3:18 a.m.
“Somebody please find me a clock. I hate not knowing what time it really is.”
My pleas going unheard, I looked around at all the books in the library. Feeling a bit curious I walked over to the closest shelf and began scanning over them. I didn't really see anything interesting, but I figured it would at least be enlightening on some of the things that went on in their history. I decided on 'Prestigious Ponies of the Pre-Equestria Era' and pulled it from the shelf. I went to read it and stopped on the table of contents.
I couldn't read a word of it. It's all chickenscratch.
What the hell is that about? Why is the inside chickenscratch, but the cover is perfectly legible? How does that make sense? I would think that the inside would be written the same as the cover, but then I'm a sane person. Who knows what these ponies do?
Sighing, I put the book back on the shelf. Now what was I going to do for the rest of the day? I didn't really want to go outside, but I knew I'd be getting hungry soon. Besides, I don't think I have any of the local currency that they used on the show. I could try and create some, but I doubt they will think too highly of counterfeiting.
Wait. Could I do that with magic? I know I could fix breakfast by moving all the stuff around with magic. I knew I could create the items to fix it with or place it upon. However, was I capable of creating actual food out of thin air? I knew Discord could do that, and I had his magic. At least I think that's what I surmised from Celestia. She said it was chaos magic and I did receive that odd coin from Discord. I guess there was only one way to find out.
I looked at the table and concentrated on it. Some Cheerios and milk would be fine. I wonder how they would like Cheerios? It's basically oats. Horses love oats. It stands to reason that the ponies would like it as well.
Damn it. I'm not concentrating. A bowl of Cheerios. A pitcher of milk. A bowl of Cheerios. A pitcher of milk. A bowl of Cheerios. A pitcher of milk.
I continued with that for quite a bit. I had no idea if it would work, but I believed my reasoning was sound. Concentration was the key to magic.
Wait a second. Regular magic was like that, but what about chaos magic? Its very nature makes it unpredictable. I was able to use spells through concentration, but I had also slipped into some spells naturally. What if that was actually a different way to use the magic? I thought about it for a bit and decided to try it out.
I let the magic coalesce in my left hand and then snapped my fingers. There was a small flash on the table and instantly, sitting on the table was what I asked for. A bowl of Cheerios and a pitcher of milk. I walked up to the table to check on them. It was a good-sized bowl. A quick taste test and I determined that they were indeed Cheerios. I then checked the milk. It also tasted fine.
This was awesome. I had some control over it. Of course, I then realized that I had no glass or spoon. I then tried again. This time, there was a glass and a spoon. Also, there was no Cheerios or a pitcher of milk.
“Let's give this one more shot.”
Another try later, and I got a bowl full of Cheerios and a pitcher of milk. Accompanying them was a spoon and a glass. All of it was about as tall as me. I quickly sighed and decided that I would just take it as is.
I reached into the bowl and scooped out a handful of Cheerios. I then started to eat them dry. They weren't as good dry, but at least I was eating something. I thought about trying to slurp up the milk, but I didn't think I would be able to do that without making a mess.
After the fourth handful of Cheerios, I snapped my fingers again and the whole shebang disappeared.
After a quick check of waving my hand through the place where they were to make sure I didn’t just make them invisible, I weighed my options for the day. I really didn’t want to leave the library. However, I couldn’t just stay in there for my entire stay in Equestria. I could turn invisible before leaving, but I’m not sure how they would like that. Plus, if nobody could see me, then I could have them running into me without knowing what’s going on.
I walked over to a window and looked outside. There were quite a few ponies out during this time of day. Once I was outside, the stares would begin. I really did not like that. It’s one of the main reasons why I don’t like leaving my house. It’s only fine then because I’m not the attention grabber of any person. However, when you are the only person anywhere you will get attention no matter what.
What to do? I really didn’t like any of my possible choices. The fact that I was really uncomfortable around strangers ended up driving my decision in two directions. Either I could stay in here where it was safe, or I could leave under the cloak of invisibility. I could work on practicing my newfound magical abilities inside. Unfortunately, I also had problems focusing on tasks; even ones that I was interested in. Leaving meant that I was vulnerable to the ponies that were just outside. The invisibility would help, but that would only go so far.
“Argh! I am overthinking this way too much! Stay or go. How about which will be less boring?”
Upon hearing that, it helped me with my decision making. Staying inside would leave me to practice, but it would only be a matter of time before I became bored from it. Leaving would provide less for me to do, but I would be able to observe the happenings around town with the option to fix anything going down. It wasn’t really a great option either way, but I knew I would get bored one way.
Steeling my resolve, I got ready to leave. I remembered that I still had something I needed to do. I quickly created a piece of paper and a pen with my magic and left a note on the table. It told Twilight that I would return by around nightfall. It was a little hard to write with the giant pen, but I managed to do it eventually. With the note left and the pen blinked away, I activated my invisibility spell and made for the door.
After waddling my way through the doorway, I closed the door and took a look around. It was definitely not boring. There were quite a few ponies making their way around town. It was a shame that I never really paid much attention to the background ponies. It was a minor problem, and one I could rectify with a nice walk around town.
I really had no destination in mind, so I just picked a direction and started walking. It felt pretty good to not be stared at. Every time I remembered that public apology it made me shudder slightly. It was odd to think about, but the fact that Spike had lit me on fire was actually a slightly better thing in my mind between the two. I would rather not have to do either one again, though.
During my walk, I took note of all of the ponies around the place. Every color imaginable to the brain appears on those ponies. I was intrigued by the cutie marks that each of them have. It’s actually rather generic. Most earth ponies have some form of food, Pegasus ponies seem to have some sort of weather pattern, and unicorns seem to have varying degrees of some sort of profession on them. Honestly, I was expecting a little more variety than was shown here. Then again, Ponyville was more of a cross section of all of Equestria.
After about an hour of this I realized that maybe staying in the library may have been the better option after all. Everywhere I looked all I saw was the same thing. Sure when you see this on television, ponies everywhere looks like it could be fun. In reality, it isn’t the same thing. They aren’t doing anything different than you would see people doing. Buying groceries, eating meals, chatting with neighbors; it was all the same thing.
After hearing about how much some mare wanted to pay for some fruit, I came to the decision that I just wanted to head back to the library. Nothing was happening around here that would interest me.
That was when something finally caught my eye.
It was subtle, but it looked like one of the ponies was watching me. I wasn’t sure at first, so I started walking in different directions every few minutes. The cover the marketplace offered was very helpful. By hiding behind some of the stalls from the pony’s line of sight, it allowed me to make sure that its gaze was actually on me and not making guesses at it.
I continued this for almost twenty minutes. I honestly found it a little humorous how I could see the time on my watch when I hit the illuminate button despite the fact that I was supposed to be invisible. Despite that fact, the rest of me was perfectly invisible. How was that pony able to see me? I needed to find out.
I soon found an alley between two houses. I decided to duck in there and wait for the pony. It didn’t take long.
The pony came into view at the end of the alleyway in less than a minute. I then got my first good look at it. It was actually a colt. It was an earth pony that had tan fur and a brown mane with a streak of black down the middle. Its cutie mark was a magnifying glass with a horseshoe underneath it. It looked around a bit and then its gaze fell upon me once more. I decided to confront him.
“I find it a bit curious as to how you are able to see me. My invisibility spell was perfect. Or so I thought.”
“Your spell is quite impressive,” the colt said with a British accent. “I almost thought I had lost you twice.”
“A bit of an odd choice of words.”
“Perhaps it is because you think that I can, in fact, see you. However, that is not the case.”
“It isn’t?” I asked with a little confusion in my voice.
“Of course not. I was following the tracks you made in the ground. There were a few times when I knew where you were by things moving on their own in response to your touch as well. I had to focus to keep tabs on you a few times, but your trail made it obvious where you went. It was quite an intriguing trail; one that had me work upon my sleuthing ability for the first time in quite a while.”
“Sleuthing ability, eh? That’s not something I would see many ponies having as their special talent.”
“Indeed. It is a bit of a rare ability. Even more so for an earth pony such as myself. On that note, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Case Cracker.”
“That’s an interesting name.”
“It’s from my parents. My father was named Rice Cracker and my mother was a bit eccentric. I think it came out swimmingly.”
“It certainly seems that way. Everything around here seems like odd coincidences.”
“Ah, so you’ve noticed it too have you?”
“You mean the name thing?”
“Indeed. I’ve found it to be quite the odd occurrence. It is one the many mysteries that I am currently looking into. One of which is you.”
“I’m no mystery. I know exactly who I am and how I got here.”
“Ah, perhaps you do. However, my dear boy, do you know the why?”
“Not yet. Although, I was told it would be a journey. Perhaps I will find out on this journey.”
“Ah, quite so, quite so. It does sound utterly fascinating to me.”
“It feels like you have enough on your plate right now, though. I can handle working on this one. I do admit that the name thing sounds intriguing to me as well. How is it that every pony here seems to have a special talent that is associated with their name? One would think that they would know their special talent from birth if that was true.”
“That is the very thing that I am trying to discover. Unfortunately, I have made no progress on the matter.”
I decided to give a little thought of my own.
“I’m sure that whatever the reason for it is, that it will be a very significant discovery. Perhaps you should ask a few ponies to give specific names to their children to help with that? It may give you some long term information that could help you out.”
“I am not sure about that. It sounds a little invasive.”
“That’s why I said to ask. After all, it never hurts to ask, right?”
“I suppose I could ask a few couples about it.”
“That’s the spirit!”
“Say, I didn’t get your name.”
“I’m Seth. The human.”
“Oh, well I didn’t know because you’re still invisible.”
I looked down and realized that he was right. I had forgotten to drop my spell.
“Ah. That would explain that. Although, I would have thought you knew it was me.”
“I wasn’t absolutely sure. I wasn’t there for your public apology so I didn’t know what you sounded like and there are other beings that can use magic with your size, though not very many.”
“Interesting. Well, I have to go talk with Twilight Sparkle and some of her friends, so I’ll have to end this conversation here.”
“Ah, a shame that is. Well then, I hope I get the chance to talk to you again in the future.”
“As do I, Case Cracker. You seem interesting to talk to. I’ll see you later.”
“And I hope to see you for the first time!”
I chuckled at that and walked out the other side of the alley. I didn’t look back to see if he followed me, but I assumed that he did not. It was certainly a strange conversation. Enlightening, but strange. There were some ponies who did notice strange things about the world they lived in. True, it was only one pony, but one is merely the beginning of things to come.
After walking out of the alley, I looked around to see about heading back to the library. A few glances around and I realized that I couldn’t see it from where I was. I considered teleporting to the library, but I hadn’t learned how to do that yet. I bet I could figure it out, but I didn’t want start teleporting randomly all over Equestria, especially if I had no idea where anyplace was other than Ponyville, Canterlot, and a few other small places.
A couple minutes of deliberating later, and I decided to see if I could find anyone I knew who could point me in the direction of the library. Another five minutes of aimless wandering and I noticed the mayor walking by. Perfect.
Or not. I wasn’t paying close enough attention and then noticed that she was being flanked by three other ponies that were busy having a conversation around her. I would interject, but I’m a giant wuss when it comes to trying to get people’s attention. Instead of trying to get her attention, I merely started to follow her and wait for an opportunity to speak to her.
An hour and forty minutes went by and I realized just how much work she did around town. I kept listening to the conversations that went on amongst the group. Many things were discussed such as budget, education, infrastructure, and so on. Along the way, she stopped at a few buildings to collect information on the happenings of the town. I wasn’t interested at first, but I decided that there might be things I need to know hidden away in what she is talking about that could help me out in the long run. The only problem will be remembering them when I need to.
I was content to keep following them, but I found a new place to go to instead.
Sugar Cube Corner.
Well, at least it was somewhere I knew. I broke off from the mayor’s entourage and walked up to Sugar Cube Corner. The door to the building was open so I let myself in. Inside, I could see the Cakes tending to the store. It was not very busy. The first time I was here, I actually didn’t get a real good look around. This time, however, I took in a bit of the place. There were only three ponies in the store and all of them were seated at two tables. Everywhere you looked there was some form of pastry, whether it was cake, donuts, pies, muffins; you name it and they had it somewhere in their store. Some of it was even built into the architecture.
It was a tad odd with no Pinkie Pie there to throw things off of the norm. It didn’t last long.
“I think that this may be the best party I’ve ever thrown ever!”
My attention was drawn to the entrance. Pinkie Pie was walking inside with another pony following just behind her.
“You say that every time that throw a party, darling. True, they are always wonderful parties.”
“I know! And this one will be the best one ever! Well, at until the next best party ever. Then that one will be the best party I ever throw!”
“Yes, yes I know. It will be quite the little soirée.”
Ah, and that would be my first look at Rarity. Of course I’d seen her plenty of times on television, but the difference between television and twenty feet away from you is always quite different. It’s like seeing a snake. If you see a snake on t.v. you think it’s neat and maybe get a little information about it from there. If you see a snake on the ground twenty feet in front of you, you get a much different reaction along the lines of ‘don’t panic and it won’t mess with you’ or something along those lines.
Of course, that rule applied to Pinkie Pie whether she was on the t.v. or not. A living conundrum. I subscribed to the t.v. version of her, but that still made her unstable and unpredictable.
“Just remember, we’ll have the surprise party for him here and then when that’s done we’ll head over to Twilight’s place and see about what he wanted to talk about.”
That grabbed my attention.
“Yes, I know Pinkie. I’ll be sure to attend.”
With that, Rarity turned and left the store. Following that, a smile crept up on my face. Pinke Pie was throwing me a surprise party. A surprise party that was no longer a surprise to me. I had two options: turn the surprise back on Pinkie and laugh or get Pinkie in on a new plan to surprise everyone else for the party.
Both plans were outright awesome in their own rights. Getting the drop on Pinkie Pie would be epic. It would also have a success rate that would probably be pretty low. Of course, pulling it off would make me a legend.
Having Pinkie Pie in on it meant that I could get more elaborate. Her love of parties would get me backed easily enough. Not to mention that surprising her friends at my surprise party would be awesome.
Weighing the options, I finally made my decision.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
“You’re lucky you found me.”
“Ugh. I know, Twilight, I know. You don’t have to keep telling me.”
This had been getting old.
Basically, after I had left Sugar Cube Corner, I started back in the direction that I thought the library was in. I was sure of it. An hour later, I wasn’t as sure as I had been. I didn’t see anything that I recognized anywhere. No landmarks, no familiar ponies, no anything helped me out.
About then I just leaned up against one of the buildings and thought about how to get back. I could just try to teleport to the library. I knew all of the things that could go wrong with that, but at the rate I was going I would never manage to get back. I filed that away as a last resort for when it was getting dark.
About the time I did that, I finally got lucky and spotted Twilight walking down the road. I didn’t want to drop my spell, so I had to get her attention in a different manner. I looked around and spotted a good-sized rock. That would do nicely. I then levitated the rock and moved it in front of Twilight. It caught her attention pretty quickly and I then levitated the rock over to myself with her following closely behind. I then grabbed the rock out of the air. It only took her a few second to understand what was happening.
“Seth! What are you doing?”
“I was out for a walk to see the town.”
“You’re invisible again.”
“I know that. I still don’t like crowds.”
“You’re never going to get anypony here used to you if all you do is hide from them. You’ve got to stop worrying so much about what others think of you.”
“I can’t help it Twilight. That kind of thinking is hard-wired into my brain. Getting past it hasn’t worked for me in the past and it certainly isn’t going to be easier here when I’m the only one of my kind. The only thing I will receive here is attention. It’s the same as Fluttershy.”
“Fluttershy comes out of her cottage to feed her animals and comes into town and nothing bad happens to her.”
“She’s not a six foot biped. I doubt Iron Will was unnoticed at any time here in Ponyville.”
As soon as I had said it, I knew it was a mistake. She furrowed her brow and I could see the gears working in her head. Finally, she asked what I knew she would ask.
“How do you know about Iron Will? None of us have mentioned him at all. He hasn’t been here for months.”
I already had an answer by the time she finished.
“I’ll tell you about that when your friends are ready for the chat later. It’s part of what the Princess asked me to talk to you all about. You’ll get your answers then.”
“Fine, but no more invisibility.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because I’m already getting some stares of my own from some of the ponies here.”
I looked around and, sure enough, a couple of ponies were starting to look at her in a funny manner.
“All right, fine. This is not going to be fun.”
A quick shimmer later and my spell dropped. A few gasps after that and now all eyes were on me. Uncomfortable was an understatement.
“Let’s hurry up and get to the library.”
“Actually, I wanted to make a quick stop at Sugar Cube Corner. I hope that’s alright with you.”
“Yeah, that sounds fine. I’m starting to wonder if I can get anywhere in this town without an escort.”
“You probably should just watch where you’re going. I’m surprised you haven’t already.”
“I’ve been a little distracted the last couple of times. Let’s just get going.”
She started to walk away and I quickly followed.
“You’re lucky that I came along or you might have not found your way back for quite a while.”
“Maybe. I bet I would have stumbled upon it at some point.”
“I doubt that. You’re almost on the edge of town right now.”
“I would have turned around if I hit the edge of town.”
She let out a contemptuous snort. It had a lot more power behind it what with her being a pony and all. I let out a smile at that.
“All I’m saying is that it was lucky you found me, and that’s all.”
“I get it, Twilight.”
Almost thirty minutes of that later, and we found ourselves in front of Sugar Cube Corner.
“It’s after hours so we should knock and let them know we’re coming in.”
Wow, that was a lame cover. Too bad I couldn’t call her on it. I do need to play along.
“Do you want me to come along? I probably should tell Pinkie that she can throw me a party now.”
I didn’t see her face, but I saw her hoof go to her face. I could almost imagine what she looked like right now. She was probably holding back her laughter right there to keep up the act.
“You know, that’s a good idea, Seth. Why don’t we do that while we’re here.”
She proceeded to knock on the door.
“Who is it?”
”It’s me, Pinkie.”
“Me, who?”
“It’s Twilight. Open up!”
“Okie dokie lokie!”
The door opened up and the two of us went inside. The place was quite dark and you couldn’t make out anything. The door then closed behind us.
It was time.
“SURPRISE!!!”
Everyone there yelled out the surprise as loud as they could. They all then looked at me. Or at least where they thought I was. As far as they could see, only Twilight Sparkle was standing in front of the door. I had quickly activated my invisibility spell and moved into the room a tad to avoid them seeing me.
“Uh, Twilight, I thought both ya’ll were uh comin’ for the party.”
“I don’t understand. Where is he? Did he not want to come to the party I threw for him?”
“Of course not,” Twilight said trying to comfort her friend. “He’s just shy. He doesn’t like being the center of attention.”
“No! I think he just hates me! He messed up my party cannon! He yelled at me while he was at your place and now he runs away from my party!”
After hearing that, I decided to walk up close to her in case something bad happened.
“Calm down, darling. I’m sure Twilight is correct,” said Rarity.
“No! He hates me! He’s just a mean grouchy pants and doesn’t deserve a party!”
I reached down and prepared to pick her up for her surprise. She seemed to be getting a little out of hand.
“Oh come now, Sugarcube, you don’t really mean that do you?”
Her mane and tail then went flat and her color dulled. She then gave Applejack a strong glare. Some wind started to pick up out of nowhere.
“I meant what I said!” she exclaimed with a bit of reverberation in her voice.
“Woah! Calm down Pinkie! You’re going kinda bonkers about this,” Rainbow Dash interrupted.
“I’m going bonkers? I’ll show you going bonkers!”
All of a sudden, Pinkie was slowly rising into the air. The wind picked up even more and Pinkie herself started to glow softly. It was a bit unnerving. All the ponies except her close friends started to back off.
“Pinkie, stop!” yelled Twilight trying to calm her friend down.
“I won’t stop! This was going to be the greatest party ever! It was going to be my best surprise party for sure! And now it’s ruined!”
“We can throw you a party instead! How about that?” asked Twilight.
“If I know, then it isn’t a surprise party! A surprise party is supposed to be surprising! Like this!”
Suddenly she breathed in heavily and grew to twice her size. Everyone was getting ready for something bad to happen. Pinkie then yelled at the top of her lungs.
“SURPRISE!!!” we both yelled as I dropped my invisibility.
Everyone jumped as we both yelled at them. Her appearance went back to normal and the wind disappeared as well.
“You should see the looks on your faces!” I exclaimed.
Several jaws started to drop.
“Were you surprised?” asked Pinkie.
A few of them just started nodding.
“I told you this would be an excellent surprise Pinkie. No one ever expects the surprise to be on the guests!”
“You were right! This was an excellent idea! This really is my best party ever!”
Rainbow Dash was the first to break the silence.
“What the hay just happened!?!”
“That’s what I want to know! I thought I was bringing him here for him to be surprised. I can’t believe you did this Pinkie.”
“And that is why you fail,” I added with a chuckle.
“So this whole shindig was you surprisin’ us?” asked Applejack.
“Of course not, silly. The two of us just came up with this a few hours ago.”
“But Pinkie,” interrupted Rarity, “you were preparing this party since yesterday. What in the name of Celestia do you mean that you came up with this a few hours ago?”
“I can shed some light on this,” I said.
“I certainly hope so,” added Rainbow Dash.
“Well, basically I stumbled upon this little surprise party a few hours ago when Pinkie and Rarity here came into here. They were talking loud enough that I managed to hear them mention a surprise party for me before she left Pinkie to go off who knows where. I was going to surprise Pinkie Pie here instead since I doubt any of you have ever really gotten the drop on her before. Unfortunately, I realized that the party wasn’t necessarily for me, so I decided to play the safe route.”
“Where were you anyway?" asked Rarity. "I certainly think I would have seen somepony like you nearby if we were talking.”
“I was invisible at that time as well. After you left, I snuck up behind Pinkie and scooped her off of her feet. It was a bit funny, but it didn’t last long as she figured out it was me rather quickly.”
“It helped that you started laughing real quickly.”
“Yes, that too. After that I asked her about the party, and after trying to hide it I told her I already knew about the party and she confessed that it was for me. She looked pretty sad that it wouldn’t be a surprise party anymore since I knew about it. That’s when I suggested that instead of surprising me, we should surprise the guests.”
“I’ve never thrown a party like that! I told him that that would be a great idea!”
“After a bit of planning and a little practice, I told her I would come back with Twilight since she was to be the one who was going to bring me here.”
“And I still say you’re incredibly lucky I found you.”
“I was expecting to get back to the library before that. I’d say it worked out nicely.”
“It just means I had to walk around an extra ten minutes in order for them to get ready.”
“Which, I might add, you spent the entirety of telling me how lucky it was for me to have found you.”
“Hold on a second!” Rainbow Dash interrupted us. “How did you do that stuff with Pinkie Pie with the wind and the voice and making her grow huge!?!”
“I didn’t do any of that. Pinkie Pie did.”
Again everyone grew silent.
“Ah beg yer pardon?” Applejack finally asked.
“Pinkie Pie is the one who actually did most of that. I was just holding her up while she did that.”
“B-but P-P-Pinkie Pie can’t use magic.”
I looked over and noticed Fluttershy for the first time. She really was pretty hard to notice.
“I wondered about that myself. I was under the impression that earth ponies couldn’t use magic either. However, Pinkie seemed to create that cannon out of nowhere. I thought that perhaps she actually could use magic. Celestia herself told me that all beings had magic within them. Unicorns and alicorns seemed to be the best at using it though. It got me to thinking. Perhaps any pony could use magic. Earth and Pegasus ponies could use magic too. They just can’t do it because they don’t have enough magic or they don’t have the required focusing medium to make it work properly.”
“But that goes against everything I’ve ever been taught in magic school!” yelled Twilight.
“Perhaps it does. However, Pinkie Pie just proved that not everything is as it seems. She is capable of using magic. She's normally just klutzy with it or it is underpowered. That is where I came in.”
I began to channel magic into my hand again while I was still holding Pinkie in the air. It started to glow like normal. Then, Pinkie then began to glow herself. A few seconds later, the wind effect began again only this time bits of confetti started to appear in the air as well.
“While I was practicing what we were going to do, I found out that by channeling my magic into her, I can actually amplify her magic.”
“It’s really fun!” added Pinkie.
“I’m willing to bet I could do that with any pony that had magic. Something to talk about later, eh Twilight?”
Twilight just looked like her brain may have broken.
“Alright, I’ll be the first to admit it,” Rainbow Dash spoke up. “That was an impressive surprise. Nice going you two.”
With that, the wind died off again and the confetti fell to the floor. I then stopped my magic and set down Pinkie.
“I’ll admit it too. That was one heckuva surprise you pulled off. Ain’t that right everypony?”
All the ponies that were backing off earlier started to calm down and nod at Applejack’s statement. The air of unease in the room died off as well and everyone started to feel much happier it seemed.
“Alright! Let’s start the party!” exclaimed Pinkie.
Some music kicked on from somewhere and the ponies started to party as ordered. I honestly felt better after having done that. Sure, I was still uncomfortable around all those ponies, but at least I hoped I made a really good impression on those that were here.
Aside from that, I, of course, am pretty much a wallflower kind of person. I don’t really have a way of saying that without sounding like I’m a total wuss, but then again I normally am anyway so who really cares. Unfortunately, when you’re the biggest thing in the room, you really stand out from the crowd. As such, over the next few hours pretty much every pony at the party had a chat with me. It was all nice, easy chatter talking about who I was, what life was like back on Earth, and things of that nature. It was all general things as well, so I managed to avoid talking about myself. I hate talking about myself.
Finally, after about four hours the party started to die down and the guests started to leave. Everybody thanked Pinkie for a great party and I ended up on generally friendlier terms with the ponies as a whole. I would say that everything went nicely. However, I did check to make sure nothing bad happened since this wasn’t back home and something could go wrong if I had said that out loud. The only reason I didn’t think something would happen was because I didn’t say it out loud.
Surprisingly, after all the guests had left, there was almost nothing left to do for the cleanup. This, in my case, was good because I didn’t have too long left until I had to tell the six of them about what’s going on. After about an hour of silence we finished the work and all that was left was the talk I had to give.
“Alright everyone, it’s time for what I was asked to talk about from Princess Celestia. Let’s head back to the library.”
Everyone nodded and we all left for the library. I wasn’t quite as eager about it as they were. Basically because I was about to have a chat with them about their entire existence as well as what essentially was mine.
This was probably going to be the most awkward thing I would ever have to do.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
Awkward Explanations (I Think)
I looked at my watch once again. It read 2:36 p.m. All of us had filed into the library and were getting situated. There was, however, one notable absence to this little get together.
“Hey Twilight, do you know where Spike is?”
“I had him go to Canterlot today to get a couple of books that I wanted to take a look at. He won’t be back until tomorrow.”
“I thought you said something about him helping out or something like that.”
“He was helping by telling the others about this meeting as well as getting information about the party.”
“Speaking of that, I didn’t see him at the party. Did you send him off before that?”
“No. He stayed for the beginning of the party, but left after a bit to get those books for me. He really takes his role as my number one assistant seriously.”
“That he does,” I said a little flatly.
“Enough chit chat,” interrupted Rainbow Dash, “I want to know what it is that the Princess wanted you to talk to us about.”
There were nods around the room that seconded what she said.
“I know, Dash, I know. Why doesn’t everyone have a seat? This is probably going to take a while.”
Rainbow Dash snorted at my words and slowly came down to the ground where she took a seat next to Fluttershy. All six of them were now seated right across from me with nothing blocking their way from looking at me. It was a little intimidating and uncomfortable. The only thing keeping me going was my promise with Celestia. It was helping in what little way I thought it could.
“Well?” asked Rainbow Dash; getting a little impatient with me.
“Alright. Where do I begin? Hmm… I think I’ll have to start with the visit from Princess Celestia. Basically, she appeared here last night. It seemed she was a bit curious of me as well. Apparently, I was the first human she had seen in quite a long time.”
“Princess Celestia has seen humans before?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Yes, she has. It’s apparently been a long time since then, however. We got into a discussion about that for a bit, but she told me to keep the particulars a secret. We then started talking about the magic I was able to use.”
“You can use magic?” asked Rarity.
“Humans normally can’t use magic. Apparently they never could. I’m an exception. However, my ability to use magic was given to me by somebody else.”
”Why do you keep saying it like that?”
“What do you mean Dash?”
“Why do you keep saying somebody? That’s not how we say it.”
“I’m, uh, assuming that you mean how I say somebody and you guys say somepony. Well that’s how humans say it. Let’s keep on track, okay?”
“Hmph! Fine.”
“Anyway, I was saying that I can’t use magic normally. Well, the reason I can now is that because somebody gave me that ability.”
“Somepony gave you that ability?” parroted Rainbow Dash.
I turned and headed for the door.
“Hey! Where are you going?”
“I’m going to go find a parrot. It will be asking the same questions and I know that it has a reason it can’t help itself.”
“Hey!!!”
“Calm down Rainbow Dash. And you stop taunting her Seth.”
“Fine,” we both grunted at the same time. I then walked back to where I was standing and continued on.
“Yes, to answer your question, somebody gave me the ability to use magic. Apparently you all know him. He goes by the name Discord.”
“DISCORD!?!” all of them except Fluttershy yelled.
“Yes Discord. No, he’s not free. No, I don’t know how he got there. He was just there when I woke up. He’s the one who sent me here and gave me magic.”
I held my hand out and made it glow.
“Apparently, my magic is of the chaos variety, and not the normal kind. That’s how I’m able to use magic.”
“Are you sure he’s still encased in stone?” asked Twilight.
“I’m sure that if he wasn’t, then the princess would have been more hands on for this. Or I guess I should say hooves on or something like that or whatever. That kind of brings me to my next point. As soon as she realized it was chaos magic, she started to get more agitated about it. At that point, she kind of read my mind about what’s going on.”
“Wait a sec, the Princess went and read yer mind?”
“Yeah, apparently she can read your mind with her magic if she’s concentrating on you. I didn’t know that. After that happened, she teleported the both of us to the castle so she could interrogate me in a safer place. I asked her to, of course.”
“You asked her to interrogate you?” Twilight asked with some skepticism.
“It was a bit complicated, but I’ll get to that. Anyways, she began to see me more as a threat as I explained things in a bad manner. That led to me having to convince her that I wasn’t a threat. That, in turn, leads me to the first thing that she asked me to tell you today. It’s the same thing that helped her, uh, not to think of me as bad.”
“Good, because I don’t think I can take more of this stuff that you’re saying,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Yeah, yeah I know. Anyway, the first thing that the princess wanted me to tell you is how I know what I know. In order to convince her that I wasn’t a threat, I had to reveal some information that I knew about her which, in turn, was, uh, information about everyone here.”
“What in tarnation is that supposed to mean?”
“Basically, the tunnel thing and the dream thing I told you about was mostly a lie. That’s not how I knew, or not knew I mean, it’s not how I learned about you. I know about you because, well, you’re all a cartoon back home.”
All of them looked at me confused. I’m not sure they knew what cartoons were.
“Umm, you’re all kind of drawings on paper… eh heh.”
“What?” Rainbow Dash asked first.
“Yooooou’re all drawings on paper that get animated and placed on television. It’s kind of like a movie. You’ve seen a movie, right? You remember the thing you watched when you had to move the water up to Clousdale?”
“I know what a movie is!” shouted Rainbow Dash.
“Wait, how did you know about that movie? You weren’t there for that. That was months ago,” said Twilight.
“Basically, cartoons are a sub division of television programs. Television programs are like movies only shorter and are aimed at many types of viewers. Cartoons are a form of that. Television programs can have action, adventure, comedy, romance, suspense, drama, comedy, horror, and a slew of other things. It’s sort of like a play in a theater, only it comes into a screen in your house so you don’t have to go anywhere to see it. Instead, it comes to you.”
“So, what you’re telling us is that we are a television program back where you’re from?” asked Twilight.
“Yeah, it’s called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.”
“Yeah right! Like we’re supposed to believe that!” yelled Rainbow Dash.
I was expecting that. It was pretty much the only thing I think I was expecting during this.
“Chew on this. Season one, episode one: The Mare in the Moon. The opening scene is Twilight here reading a book about the mare in the moon. It was a story about how Celestia banished Luna to the moon one thousand years ago. In it, it mentioned the elements of harmony. She also found out that Nightmare Moon was supposed to be released on the longest day of the thousandth year. Basically, at the summer sun celebration. She had Spike write a letter to the princess to warn her, but the princess sent her a letter back saying ‘don’t worry about it, just make some friends.’
“Twilight and Spike then come to Ponyville to oversee the preparations. The first pony they see is Pinkie Pie here. She lets out a big gasp and runs off. Twilight then gets exasperated and wants to hurry things up so she can read up on Nightmare Moon some more. First thing she does is head out to Sweet Apple Acres. She meets Applejack there who is, of course, bucking apples. You two meet, followed by some introductions of the entire Apple family, and a taste test of the food you were preparing for the event.
“After eating way too much, she then heads into town and has a talk with Rainbow Dash after she crashed into her and the mud, not to mention soaking her and tornadoing her dry. That was kind of funny by the way. After using some nice psychology on her, Twilight got Rainbow Dash to clear out the clouds from the sky.
“Next, Twilight and Spike headed out to town hall and ran into Rarity who was in charge of decorations. Of course, once she got a look at Twilight’s frazzled mane courtesy of Rainbow Dash, she set her sights on Twilight and took her back to her boutique to fix her up. A quick montage of looks later and she was trying to squeeze Twilight into this white ensemble, which, I might add, did look rather impressive. At least the way I remember it anyway.”
“Of course it was impressive. I made it after all.”
“But of course. Twilight then went on to tell her that she was from Canterlot, and then before she could elaborate Rarity went on about how she loved Canterlot. Then, when her back was turned to get something, I forget what, Twilight headed out.
“After that, Spike and Twilight went and had a talk with Fluttershy who was practicing with her bird friends. They all flew away when Twilight made herself known and Fluttershy became her usual shy self. As they were about to leave, however, she noticed Spike. She then tackled Twilight out of the way, which was a bit out of the norm for her I might add, and had a nice and very long conversation with Spike as Twilight carried him back into town. Spike basically told Fluttershy his entire life story during the trip back, but it was clipped to show him saying that as she arrived back at the library.
“After closing the door on Fluttershy, Twilight comments to Spike about how she needs to convince the princess to change her mind about Nightmare Moon and how she doesn’t need to have any more ponies getting in her way to do that. Of course, that’s when the lights come on and reveal a surprise Pinkie Pie welcome to Ponyville party. Pinkie then explains to Twilight why she gasped earlier and why she’s throwing her a party. Twilight, however, isn’t all that interested at the time and then ends up drinking some hot sauce concoction. She then races upstairs and there is a quick shot of Pinkie eating a hot sauce covered cupcake.”
“What? It’s delicious!”
“I’m sure you think so, Pinkie. It then cuts to Twilight trying to get some sleep and Spike comes in to tell her that she’s missing the party. Twilight then comments on how all the ponies in the town are crazy. Spike then comments on how she should lighten up and have some fun and leaves her alone. She then talks to herself about how she just wanted to learn about the elements of harmony and how all the friend making was getting in the way of it. She then quotes the prophecy of Nightmare Moon and hopes that the princess was right about her worrying. Spike then comes in and tells her that the festival is about to begin.
“It then cuts to the town hall again where all the ponies in Ponyville have gathered to wait for Princess Celestia. During the introduction by the mayor, Twilight looked to the moon and noticed that the outline of Nightmare Moon on it disappearing. The mayor then finished her introduction, but the princess doesn’t show up. Instead, Nightmare Moon shows up and gives some speech. No one knows who she is except for Twilight who explains it to everyone else. Then, finally, Nightmare Moon goes on to tell everyone that she is going to make it night forever.”
I stop and take a few deep breaths and let that sink in. No one in the room says a thing. Utter shock adorned their faces.
“Should I keep going with episode two where you all took a journey into the Everfree Forest to get the elements of harmony and stopped Nightmare Moon and Twilight learned the importance of friendship? Perhaps you should hear episode three where you all tried to get Twilight to take one of you to the gala and she couldn’t decide between all of you? Then, there was episode four where it was Applebuck season and Applejack here refused to get any help until it was almost too late. Episode five was where Gilda the griffon came to town and showed her true self to everybody right after Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash pulled some pranks. Episode six was when Trixie came to town and showed off her magic, but then Twilight had to save the town when an ursa minor attacked. Episode seven was where a dragon started covering the sky with smoke and you all had to convince it to leave. I liked that episode. It really showed off Fluttershy’s determination to protect her friends and overcome her fear of dragons.”
“Alright! Enough already! We get it!” yelled Rainbow Dash.
“I could go on with this, but you get the idea. There are currently two seasons with twenty six episodes each season. The first one covered the time between what I said all the way to the end of the Grand Galloping Gala. Season two started from the escape of Discord and went on until just about the time when you had Rainbow Dash’s sonic rainboom at Cadence’s wedding. That finale was about a week or two ago.”
“The wedding was three weeks ago,” supplemented Twilight.
“Well, it’s good to know the time-frame. Anyway, that’s how I know about all of you. Millions of people know about you guys. They know because they watch you guys every Saturday morning and then watch reruns on the internet or iTunes or Netflix; one of those ways. The shows’ demographic is supposed to be towards little girls, but it has a cult following amongst men for some reason that even I can’t explain despite the fact that I’m one of them.”
Rainbow Dash snickered a bit.
“So, you’re telling me that you watch a show for little girls?”
“Watch it, Dash.”
“Or what? You’re watching something that’s meant for foals!”
For a second, I thought of a certain bodybuilder telling me that I was a little girly man.
“Saying that means you’re laughing at the fact that you are just awesome enough for foals.”
She stopped laughing and glared at me.
“Hey! I’m the most awesome pony in Equestria!”
“Wonderbolts. Princesses,” I said as I lifted one hand for each.
“So,” interrupted Twilight, “you’re telling us that all these people are watching us all the time?”
“Not all the time, but yes. Of course, many of us in the brony community believe that Pinkie has some awareness of this.”
They turned to Pinkie.
“You actually knew about this?” asked Twilight.
“I plead the fifth!” she yelled.
That was a good enough answer for me.
“What does that even mean?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“What’s ah brony?” asked Applejack.
“Umm, it means bro’s who like ponies. Bronies.”
About that time, I noticed Fluttershy whose eyes reminded me of Celestia’s after she had gone strolling through my brain. I missed what retort was said next as I kept my gaze on her. She was not taking this well. I doubt I would either.
“Nobody blow on Fluttershy. I think she’ll faint.”
Their gazes redirected to Fluttershy. Whatever they were asking me was forgotten as they all tried to calm her down. I honestly wouldn’t know how to take it either. I pretty much have the same mentality as she does. The only difference between us is that I have actually taken the time to think about these kinds of scenarios. It isn’t really much though. I honestly doubt thinking about it would really help.
After some coaxing from her friends, Fluttershy finally came back to the present. She still didn’t look too great, though. Perhaps it’s time to move the recap forward.
“Let’s go ahead and move on to the next part. Celestia still didn’t really think too much of my story and thought that I was just spying on her. At that point, I offered her a chance to use a spell she had mentioned earlier on me. A scrying spell she said it was.”
“A scrying spell? I’ve never heard-“
“And that’s a good thing Twilight,” I interrupted. “After seeing Celestia use it, I want to make sure that you never use it ever.”
“What do you mean by that?” she retorted.
“What I mean is that she hadn’t used it before on a human and she pretty much knows my entire life story since there wasn’t a filter on it.”
“Well ain’t that a good thing since it’ll give her a reason tah trust ya?”
“There is a saying that we have back where I am from. What has been seen, cannot be unseen.”
“What the hay is that supposed to mean?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I’ll use an example. Rarity, do you remember Prince Blueblood from the gala?”
“Ugh, I wish I didn’t. He was absolutely dreadful. He was the most atrocious pony I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting.”
“Exactly. If you had the option, you would never have even approached him. Unfortunately, what has been seen, cannot be unseen. It’s more commonly used for when you see really gross things or when you desperately want to forget something that happened to you, but you can’t. Celestia knows that phrase first hand now. After seeing what was inside my head, she actually threw up.”
Hearing that tidbit drew shock from everyone present.
“Yeah, it was quite the surprise for me too. I mean I’ve seen things that I wish I hadn’t, but I didn’t think it was that bad.”
I then looked at Twilight in particular.
“I also hope that reinforces the fact that I told you not to try scrying spells.”
“The Princess went into your mind and what she saw made her throw up?” asked Rainbow Dash with a hint of apprehension.
“Once again, I repeat, what has been seen-“
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. What in the wide world of Equestria could you have seen that made her do that?”
“There are a few things that I could mention, but I don’t feel like elaborating on it. If she reacted that way, why would I want to make you know about it? Besides, it’s my past and I don’t really want to talk about it that much anyway.”
She looked like she was about to continue arguing, but for some reason she hesitated. I decided to move along again.
“Anyway, after a bit, she finally snapped out of whatever it was she saw and we continued to talk. Having seen what essentially is my entire life’s story, she came to the conclusion that I wasn’t a threat anymore. So that’s good. She then brought up what is essentially her other point. That brings me to you, Twilight.”
“Me? What did the Princess want me to know?”
“Well, I don’t really know how to say this, but, well, in addition to becoming my teacher in magic, she, uh, kinda wants me to… well, she wants me to be your student in…friendship.”
“What?” she asked in a very confused voice.
“Apparently I’m your student in the magic of friendship as well.”
I brought my hand to my forehead and shielded my eyes. I honestly didn’t want to see any of the reactions that any of them were having to this.
“Look,” I continued without actually looking at them, “Celestia thinks that I should be your student in the magic of friendship. She says it’s because I don’t have any friends, but I say-“
“You don’t have any friends!?!” I heard Pinkie yell.
“Of course I do,” I said as I looked at her.
I instantly regretted it. She had the biggest set of sad puppy dog eyes I had ever seen. On top of that, staring at me to her left and right were the others with their own sad looks in their eyes. It was like staring into the eyes of sadness itself. The only way you couldn’t feel something looking into those eyes was if you had no soul.
“I honestly have no idea what I can say to those looks. Just looking at you guys makes me feel like I’ve done something horrible.”
I didn’t even see what happened next. I did feel it though. One second I could see and the next I felt something hugging my face; blinding me at the same time. Thankfully, I could still breathe. I then felt another five sensations of something hugging me all over; one on each leg, one on each arm, and one hugging my torso.
I honestly wasn’t sure what to feel at the moment. Yes, I do like hugs. This, however, felt a lot like that failed intervention I once was subjected to. It was enough that it made me feel really confused. In the end, I just stood there waiting for something to happen.
“Don’t you worry, Seth,” Pinkie said, “As long as you’re here you’ll be our friend. Right girls?”
“Of course.”
“He sure will.”
“Indeed deary.”
“That sounds nice.”
“He’ll be my best student ever.”
“Won’t I be your first student ever?”
Everyone chuckled at that. She followed that up quickly.
“That also makes you my worst student ever. What will I do with you?”
Again, everyone chuckled.
“Well, maybe we can figure out this magic I have. Like I said, Celestia told me it wasn’t normal magic. It was chaos magic. I honestly think it came from that coin.”
“What coin are you talking about?” asked one of them; I couldn’t tell which.
“It’s in my right pocket.”
“I’ll get it.”
There was a quick jostle in my pocket and then everyone let out a yelp. It was followed by the weight on my right arm disappearing.
“MY EYES!!!”
It was loud enough that I assumed that it was Pinkie who yelled it.
“Who grabbed the coin?” I asked.
“It was me.”
“I have a Pinkie on my face. I can’t see anything either.”
“It’s me, Rarity.”
“Did you use your magic to take it out?”
“Of course I did. I’m not reaching into your pants for it. That would be quite rude.”
“It reacts to magic. Don’t use your magic on it. Also, Pinkie, hug time is over. Please return to the floor now.”
I used my free hand to scoop her off of my face and place her on the ground. Now that I could see I noticed everyone was still trying to blink their eyes clear. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the coin. It was oddly glowing. It wasn’t any strange colors, but it just seemed to radiate in an unnatural fashion. I only noticed it for a few seconds before the glow disappeared and it returned to, well normal was a stretch, but it was the best description I could use for it. I looked it over and there was another change to it.
“Hey Twilight, can you see yet?”
“Not quite, but everything is now just a blobby blur.”
“Well, the coin changed appearances again. It now has Rarity’s cutie mark on it.”
“That coin has my cutie mark on it?”
“Yes it does. It also has Twilight’s on there too.”
I looked at the coin closely. In the outer circle, Twilight’s cutie mark was engraved into it. I was honestly impressed even though I had already seen hers on there before, but the excellent detail on it to match Twilight’s cutie mark precisely was still awe inspiring.
Now it was joined by a small, broken, and curved line to another symbol. This time, it was Rarity’s cutie mark. Not only were all three gems there, they were in the proper alignment and even faceted properly as well. The only difference was the fact that they were all colored gold. Other than that one difference, it was a flawless recreation.
However, the other symbols were still the same. The other four on the outside ring and the three symbols on the inside ring were exactly the same as when I originally got the coin from Discord.
“Alright, everyone off the human, please,” I stated in a more exasperated tone.
One by one everyone climbed off of me and stood or sat on the floor nearby; all of them still trying to see once more. In a bit of an odd impulse, I placed the coin on the tip of Twilight’s nose.
“What are you doing?” she asked me.
“Making sure you know where the coin is,” I said dryly.
She reached up and grabbed the coin off of her nose.
“My vision isn’t gone, it’s just blurred.”
A few more moments and it looked like her vision cleared up as she examined it in her hoof.
“You’re right, Seth. This looks exactly like Rarity’s cutie mark.”
“It’s some pretty exquisite detail isn’t it?”
“Oh, oh, oh, I want to see it! I want to see it!”
“Let Twilight finish looking first and then you can, Pinkie,” I said sounding like a parent figure.
“It’s alright. I’m curious about it, but it’s not like it’s going to change again in the next few seconds. Here you go Pinkie.”
“Thanks a lot, Twilight!” Pinkie said as she grabbed the coin.
Instantly, my world went white.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
“Pinkie I swear if that was you I'm going to break my foot off in your… well, I shouldn’t say that around your friends, but I’m still pretty upset!”
“It wasn’t me! I swear!”
I was still rubbing my eyes and blinking to get my vision back to normal. If I wasn’t worried about needing that coin for something in the future, I would have chucked it into the sun by now. I have no idea how I would do that, but it’s the principle of the matter.
“Alright,” I continued on, “if it wasn’t Pinkie Pie who did that, then it must have been the coin.”
“I concur,” added Twilight. “If Pinkie wasn’t the cause, however, then there is one other possibility. The coin is reacting to us instead. The coin blinded us when both Rarity and I used our magic to levitate it, and then it reacted again when Pinkie touched it.”
“The question then is does it react to ponies in general or it is you girls specifically?” I asked.
“We need to run some tests to see whether it’s safe or not. I can get started on that right away.”
“Correction. You can get started on that tomorrow, Twilight,” I said.
“What are you talking about? I need to get started on this right away.”
“Twilight, it’s getting late, I think. Still, we should all get some sleep and start fresh on this tomorrow. It will give you some time to contemplate more about it. I’ve covered everything that Princess Celestia asked me to do, thus fulfilling my promise as well, and we all, well you all anyway, have things you probably need to do tomorrow anyway. I’m willing to bet you even have a bullet point list of what you’re doing tomorrow somewhere around here. Am I right, Twilight?”
I was only starting to be able to see again, but I couldn’t make out what Twilight was doing. I assumed I was right, but then again assuming things all the time can just make you look like an ass. I decided on a different tact.
“Everyone else has something they need to do tomorrow, I’ll bet. Applejack probably needs to take care of some work at Sweet Apple Acres, right?”
“Ah sure do. I need to buck somma the trees in the north field and one of the wagons needs ah fixin’.”
“Fluttershy, you need to feed your little animal friends tomorrow, and I’m sure Angel bunny is probably either concerned or upset that you haven’t returned home yet.”
“T-that is true.”
“Rarity most likely has an order to fill for a customer or a friend of hers.”
“Well, I do have a little something that I need to finish up for a customer, but they aren’t picking it up until three days from now.”
“Pinkie Pie is probably helping out Mr. and Mrs. Cake in exchange for holding a party at Sugar Cube Corner.”
“Of course! I Pinkie promised that I would!”
I was a little surprised I got that right, but I continued on quickly anyway.
“And finally, Rainbow Dash… actually I think she’s pretty free between her naps tomorrow.”
“Hey, I got stuff that I need to do tomorrow too!”
“Alright then. Still, that means that everyone else has something that they need to do tomorrow, Twilight. I doubt that you don’t have anything which requires your attention. Or however I wanted to say that. You know what I mean.”
I heard a quick giggle from someone, but I had my eyes closed for it. I opened my eyes again to see who and I found I could finally see normally again.
“Anyway, my point remains valid. You have things that you probably need to do tomorrow. While the coin is important, I don’t want it consuming your entire day.”
“You think you know us so well, but for your information I do not have anything planned for tomorrow. I can get to work on it right now and everypony else can head back home for their busy days tomorrow.”
Damn. I hadn’t actually expected that.
“Alright, Twilight, I guess I’ll just pull out my ace in the hole.”
“Your ace in the what now?” asked Applejack.
“It’s an expression derived from a game called poker. It means that I have one last thing I can use that will almost certainly win me the argument.”
“Oh really?” asked Twilight; her voice thick with, whatever it’s called. I’m not a thesaurus. “What is it that you think can make me do what you’re asking?”
“I’m supposed to be your student, remember? If you’re up all night studying that coin, who will give me lessons in the morning? You’ll be way too tired to do that if you stay up all night examining that coin.”
“Well, what I can do is-“
“I can tell you a solid plan for this,” I interrupted. “You can get a good night’s sleep. Then, you can wake up an hour early and prepare a list for me to practice magic from. Then, when that’s ready, you can get me up and we’ll have breakfast together. I managed a neat trick with my magic earlier today and I have something for you to try. After that, you can start examining the coin and I can get to work on training my magic. Does that sound like a good plan?”
“Actually, that does sound pretty good.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” I said trying to cut off any attempt at her changing the plan. “Let’s get started on that plan then.”
I leaned forward and picked up Twilight. I then hung her over my shoulder and started off towards the stairs. Shortly after starting, I felt her disappear.
“I think I can manage to find my own way upstairs,” I heard her say from behind me. I turned to face her. “There are, however, some things that I do want to know about right now. You know things about all of us that we wouldn’t normally tell other ponies in casual conversation. I think it’s only fair that we get to know some things about you. Don’t you agree, Seth?”
“Well, I don’t know…” I said and started stroking my beard.
“Well, ah think ya ought to. It only seems fair.”
“Ooh, ooh, I want to hear a story!” said Pinkie as she started bouncing up and down excitedly.
“A story about my life? When did Equestria become that boring?” I said as I rolled my eyes.
Pinkie actually shot right up to my face. I jerked reflexively and it just gave her a foothold to stay in my face.
“Please? Please? Please? I really want to hear a story.”
I thought about that for a second. Pinkie wanted to hear a story and I didn’t really want to talk about my life. However, I do like to talk about things that interest me. Perhaps a story is in order.
“Alright, I can give you a story, but it is somebody else’s story. A great story about a man I told Twilight about once. Would you be interesting in hearing that for now?”
“Ooooooh! That does sound interesting.”
“That’s not really what I asked of you Seth,” Twilight complained. “I was doing this as part of your work in the study of friendship. I’d like you to pick a topic that isn’t someone else’s life.”
“A good part of my life is dependent on his actions. Son Goku was a righteous man who has saved countless lives over the course of his own life. The man is a role model to me.”
Twilight furrowed her brow.
“Wait a second. Isn’t Goku the guy who you modeled that magic blast you made up in the hills after that caused the ground to shake?”
“Yeah, that’s the same guy. However, he didn’t create the technique. He just mastered it.”
“Hey!” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “What’s this about the ground shaking? I didn’t know about this!”
“You didn’t hear nuthin’ bout that? All of a sudden, the ground started ta’ shake all funny like. It lasted a good ten seconds fore it quit. Made everypony a might frightened it did.”
“So you’re telling me that he used a magic blast that was so intense that it made the ground shake? That sounds pretty awesome!”
“It was pretty darn frightenen’ is what it was!” Applejack yelled back.
“It really was. It took me forever to calm down all my little animal friends.”
“You know, can I ask you to apologize to them for me, Fluttershy? I can’t speak to animals.”
Yeah. I know how ironic that sounds, but I’m not going to say that out loud.
“Of course I can.”
“Thanks Fluttershy.”
“Aaaaaanyway,” interrupted Twilight, “I still think we should hear something about you. We can hear all about this Goku person some other time. I doubt we have enough time to listen to an entire story tonight. Perhaps some other time.”
Figures. Nobody ever wants to listen to anything I actually want to talk about.
“Fine. I’m the oldest of three siblings. I have two younger sisters. My parents are divorced. My dad remarried. It took me six years to get along well enough with her. I work as a cashier at Target. My main hobby is tooling around on the internet. I love watching football. My favorite team is the Colts, ironically enough. I’m wearing a hat of theirs on my head right now. I like playing chess, despite the fact that I suck at it. I’m diabetic, which means I can’t eat a lot of sugar or I could very well collapse. I’m near-sighted so if I take off these glasses I can’t discern anything from more than fifteen feet away and I can’t read anything small even from a few feet away. On that note, what is up with your books Twilight? I picked up one of them and read the cover, but when I tried reading the insides it looked like chicken scratch.”
“Really? Which book was it?”
“I forget. It was something like important ponies in pre-Equestria.”
“Oh! You mean ‘Prestigious Ponies of the Pre-Equestrian Era’ right?”
“Yeah, that's it.”
“You know, all that stuff may ah been more than I reckon I wanted tah hear, but I’m glad ya said it anyways.”
“Sure, that’s fine,” I rebutted, “but can we all go to bed now? This talk is becoming exhausting.”
Almost on cue, I belted out a large yawn. I wonder if I’m working on cartoon physics or something. I mean, I may still be as fat as hell, but I have increased strength, stamina, and I even have magic. I swear if I didn’t have to wear glasses and I suddenly had a six-pack, I would think that somebody made me a Mary Sue. Of course, I still had my nervousness towards people, but I could almost see that as a quirky character trait.
“Hey! Are you listening?”
“Huh?” I said and looked at Twilight. “Sorry, I kinda started thinking about things to myself after that yawn. What were you saying?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
She then pointed over to Rainbow Dash.
“My bad. What were you saying Rainbow Dash?”
“Forget it! I’m heading home. Catch you guys later.”
She then proceeded to fly over to the door, open it, and then fly out into the night.
“She could have closed the door behind her. Where have her manners gone?” asked Rarity.
“I’d rather think of it as an excuse to wrap things up for the night,” I said. “Again, I’m thoroughly drained mentally. Wandering around town, a surprise party, explanations and expositions, and telling you a bit about myself have left me with a lot of nothing to go on with. I honestly don’t even want to talk anymore at this point.”
“I suppose it is getting rather late. I believe I shall adjourn for the evening. Farewell everypony.”
With that said, Rarity left Twilight’s place as well.
“I reckon I oughta be leavin’ as well. Come on Fluttershy. Let’s be off.”
“Oh, well, okay. Goodbye everypony. I’ll see you tomorrow after I feed the animals. You know. If you don’t mind or anything.”
I knelt down in front of her.
“You know, Fluttershy, when it comes to you I don’t really mind anything.”
I reached out and then brushed aside the mane hanging in front of her face.
“I know you’re a lot like me. Out of all the ponies I’ve seen here, you have the most similar personality to me. I don’t really like crowds. I don’t really deal with people well either. You have your friends to help you with that. I don’t really have anyone to help me out, though. Be grateful for your friends. Don’t just hide behind your mane all the time. You have a nice face. You shouldn’t hide it. You should lead with confidence. It would never work with me, but I think it can work for you.”
I took my hand away from her face and her mane went back to its usual style. I then ruffled the mane on top of her head playfully.
“Then again, what do I know? I’m just a schmuck from Kansas. I can give advice just fine, but taking it is a lot harder.”
I leaned in and closed my eyes. I then placed my forehead onto hers.
“You do what feels right. As long as you have your friends, then you have all that you need.”
I honestly started tearing up at my own words. I was really getting corny. Of course, I figured I could get away with it here. Friendship is magic here after all, right?
I opened my eyes and backed up from her.
“I hope I didn’t make things too uncomfortable for you. I can be like that too, after all.”
She smiled and shook her head.
“It’s alright. You just said what you believed in. That’s what counts. It’s not something you should be ashamed of. I’ll think about what you said. I’ll see you tomorrow, Seth.”
She turned and went to the door with Applejack close behind her. After she went through the door, Applejack stopped at the threshold and turned back to me.
“You know, you’re all right in my book partner. Just be honest with yourself and things’ll turn out alright.”
“Words of honesty from the element that represents it.”
“Sure is at that. Goodnight y’all.”
Applejack turned forward and left the library. Shortly after that, I felt something on the top of my head. I glanced up to see Pinkie Pie perfectly balanced on the top of my head. She was staring down at me as she began to speak excitedly.
“I had a lot of fun today too! I hope that we can have some fun together again really, really soon! Not tomorrow, though, but then really, really soon after that!”
I plucked the enthusiastic mare off of my head and placed her on the ground.
“That does sound like fun Pinkie. Let’s try doing that soon, but not soon, soon. Just soon. Savvy?”
The word at the end threw her off for a second just as I hoped it would. I honestly never use that word, but thought I should use it here for some reason. It didn’t work for very long as she seemed to recover after a few seconds.
“Whatever you say Seth! I’ll see you soon, soon!”
With that, she turned around and hopped out of Twilight’s place. Somehow, and I really don’t know how, the door seemed to shut itself after she left. No glow from Twilight or anything seemed to make it close at all. It just looked like it closed itself at a moderate speed. In the end, I just chalked it up to Pinkie magic.
“Well,” Twilight spoke up, “I think we should be heading to bed as well.”
“Before we do that, I’d like to try something first.”
I quickly focused the magic in my left hand. It had become easier and easier to do so with every attempt. I then focused on the couch that I slept on. I then snapped my fingers. The couch instantly transformed into a twin-sized bed. Unfortunately, it was merely a frame and a mattress. Still, I thought it was better than an undersized couch.
“Very nicely done my new apprentice, although, you forgot to give it some bed sheets.”
“Well, I was trying to do it with the sheets so it is only so-so. I also tried it with the chaos magic instead since I think it will transform back if I used normal magic, right?”
“That’s true. You said you used chaos magic. Can you tell the difference?”
“Actually, I just assumed that it was chaos magic. I need to concentrate on what I’m doing for regular magic, but when I’m using chaos magic, I just snap my fingers like Discord did and it seems to work for the most part. Not everything is what I hope it will be, but it goes in the general direction I want it to take. It would be easier if I could snap my right hand's fingers like this.”
As I demonstrated using my right hand, the bed sparked and suddenly it was covered by sheets and a blanket with a few matching pillows. I couldn’t help but stare for a few moments. Finally, I broke the silence.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I said in a low tone.
“I thought you said you didn’t have much in the way of specifics when you did that.”
“You have got to be kidding me!” I said in an inverted tone to my previous statement.
“What? What’s going on?”
“You know what? Eff this. Why the hell am I trying to make sense out of chaos magic? It’s chaos magic. It’s not supposed to make sense. Why in all of creation would I think otherwise anyway? Ugh. Brain no work right now. Brain make sleepy time now.”
“Why are you talking like that?”
“Because life just slapped the logic center of my brain. It needs a night to recover now. Goodnight Twilight.”
“Goodnight Seth,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
I heard her walk off, but I was busy heading over to the bed. I reached the bed and took off my shoes and my hat. I ended up placing my hat on top of my shoes since there wasn’t anywhere to hang it or place it on. I had a feeling I would forget and step on it somehow.
I pulled down the covers and lay down on the bed. It was comfy, but it was a bit itchy as well. It just wasn’t the same as back home. That just seemed to go without saying, but I still felt the need to think it.
“So, how did things go with the girls today ?”
Speaking of thinking things…
“Celestia, is that you in my head ?”
“Of course it is. It is a side effect of the scrying spell. I did not mention it before since I did not trust you completely. ”
“And what about afterwards ?”
“What about afterwards ?”
“...Goddammit Nappa. ”
“Amusing. So, did you tell the girls or not? I have faith that you would keep your promise, but they are a bit hard to handle sometimes. ”
“Yes, I did. They seemed to take it surprisingly well. ”
“That is good to hear. I have informed Luna of your situation as well. ”
“How much did you tell her exactly ? It could be problematic if she knows about certain things. I’m a little worried that she might do something if she suffers an existential crisis. ”
“Do not trouble yourself. I told her you were a human that was displaced from a different dimension and that you had gained some of Discord’s power as well. I told her that you have some knowledge of us as well so you do not have to concern yourself too much about concealing yourself in her presence. I have not told her about the scrying spell or that we are a form of entertainment to millions either. I agree that she may not handle it well with her so recently removed from her exile. ”
“That’s what I was concerned about as well. She may be nearly as old as you, but her mind is still a cacophony of problems. ”
“We both know that you do not really know what that word means, Seth. ”
“You can’t see my face right now, but you should know that I’m rolling my eyes. ”
“I wholeheartedly believe that. ”
“I forgot to ask you, but did you take a look at Discord’s statue yet ?”
“I have indeed. This is the real reason I wanted to speak with you tonight. ”
“What’s happening ?”
“As I feared, the spell holding him in stone is weakening. At the rate it is happening, it did begin as soon as you were deposited in the Everfree forest. ”
“Craaaaap,” I said out loud.
“I estimate that we have two days until Discord frees himself from his prison. I have sent a letter to Spike to inform the elements. ”
“Spike is currently in Canterlot. ”
“I am aware of this now. He will deliver the letter to Twilight Sparkle and you will all head to Canterlot the day he is supposed to escape. ”
“That’s cutting it a little close isn’t it ?”
“That is because we cannot reinforce the spell. Instead, we must recast it when Discord breaks free. ”
“I see. Why aren't you having me tell Twilight myself right now anyway ? I'm right downstairs from her. "
"And take away Spike's job ? That would be just plain silly. "
"Riiiiiight. In any case, if I’m the cause, do you think that sending me back before that happens will fix things ?”
“It matters not. I don’t know of a way to do so, and I highly doubt it would help in any case. We have two days to prepare for this and I want everyone prepared. That includes you. ”
“Really ? I would think that you wouldn’t want me anywhere near Discord if I have his powers. Wouldn’t that be dangerous ?”
“I plan on having you distract him while we use the elements. They will only work in the presence of a threat to harmony and until Discord escapes the statue, they will remain dormant. ”
“This just seems ridiculous. Why can’t I just try to add my power to the spell that’s already cast on him ?”
“Seth, we both know that is a question you already know the answer to. You must do this. When things are finished, then you can give me your complaints. ”
“Should I put them in your complaint box ?”
“Very funny. Since you cannot see me either, you should know that I am rolling my eyes now. ”
“Ha, good one. Fine, I’ll start working on practicing with my magic tomorrow for this. I’ll need to come up with some things to distract him with. ”
“You will only need to distract him for a minute or two at the most. ”
“I know that’s what you think, but I am of a different opinion. Besides, having a few different options can’t hurt either. ”
“Indeed Seth. I will leave you to rest for tomorrow. Good night Seth. ”
“Good night Celestia. ”
“Oh, one last thing. ”
“What is it ?”
“There is another Skywalker …” she thought in a croaky voice.
“How did you even do that ?”
I waited for a response, but I heard nothing.
“Well, that was interesting if nothing- “
“OOOGAHBOOGAHBOOGAH !!!”
The sudden yell in my thoughts sent me jumping and made me fall onto the floor; straight on top of my hat and shoes.
“I may have created a monster.”
Author's Note
Took a little longer than usual on this chapter. I had three pages disappear due to a power outage, and I scrapped an idea I had that involved Luna, so I ended up removing the Luna tag from my story since it won't work now.
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Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
Doing A Nice Thing (And Something Not So Nice)
I woke up the next day and noticed a few things.
The first was that I was a bit more groggy than usual. The next thing was that I was sporting some morning wood. That would have normally just been annoying and went away on its own accord, but the third thing I noticed definitely didn’t help.
The third thing was some pony staring at me while I was in bed.
I honestly wished I had asked Twilight to let me stay in the basement. However, I decided to not even acknowledge the pony as I just turned over and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. It didn’t help that I had kept my glasses on, but was an easy enough challenge. However, once that was fixed and I rolled back in that direction, there were then three ponies instead of one. Aw hell…
“He’s awake!” Sweetie Belle yelled.
“You’re right! He is awake!” Scootaloo parroted.
“Of course I’m right. I wouldn’t have said it if he wasn’t awake yet.”
“Hey, are all humans lookin’ like you?” asked Apple Bloom.
“More or less, yes,” I answered and yawned.
“Hey! Maybe if’n we ask him some questions it’ll help get our cutie marks!” exclaimed Apple Bloom.
“Hey yeah! That might work!” yelled Sweetie Belle.
I was not in the mood for this. I think I should give them a push.
“Everyone calm down and put your hooves in my hand,” I said and reached over to them with my right hand.
“But we want tah ask ya some questions to try an’ help get our cutie marks!” Apple Bloom almost whined.
“I have some special magic that may help you learn what your special talent is,” I said as I sat up. “Do you want some help with that or not?”
All three of them went very wide-eyed. Then they followed that by grinning widely and nodding feverishly. However, instead of holding out their hooves in front of him, they all jumped onto the bed near my legs and they each held out a hoof there instead.
“Excited aren’t we?”
“Of course we are!” they all yelled in unison.
They looked like they were about to continue, but I intervened.
“All right. All of you close your eyes and concentrate on thinking about getting your cutie marks, alright?”
They all nodded and closed their eyes. I then gathered some magic into my hand; making it glow. I was unsure if anything would happen or not, but that wasn’t my real intention. I decided to use my knowledge of canon to point them in the right direction. I knew something might happen if I just told them what their cutie marks might be, so I decided instead to go into fortune teller mode.
“I see something…”
“What? What do ya see?” asked Apple Bloom.
“It’s odd. It’s some kind of play.”
“A play?” asked Scootaloo.
“Indeed, a play. The three of you are putting on a play.”
I chuckled a fake chuckle.
“It is quite the funny play.”
“That sounds like the play we made a while ago,” said Sweetie Belle.
“It does have the flavor of time to it, but it isn’t very well aged,” I hammed.
“It didn’t happen too long ago. We put on ah play for the school. It wasn’t what we had planned tah do, though,” said Apple Bloom.
“I see. I also see triumph in your tragedy.”
“Yeah! We got awarded for the best comedy performance!” exclaimed Scootaloo.
“Indeed. It is odd. All I see is the time from when you prepared for the play up until when you walked off stage with your award. The pull in this is strong. It feels like if you think hard enough on those events, then your talents will be clear.”
“Really? Ah don’t know ‘bout that. We didn’t get our cutie marks for doin’ that.”
“My magic says that this time is the key. Perhaps something you three did during that time, but you were unaware. Whatever the case may be, it seems all three of you have your fates drawn to this time. Think solemnly about this. Sometimes it is easy to overlook what is right in front of you.”
I took my hand off of their hooves and let my magic subside.
“We’ll try tah think about it some like ya asked,” said Apple Bloom. “Thanks for the help mister.”
The three of them jumped down and walked out of the library slowly. It seemed like they were deep in thought, but I couldn’t be sure. I just hoped that they took my suggestion seriously.
“That was a really nice thing you did there Seth.”
I turned to see Twilight Sparkle standing off to the side in the middle of a doorway.
“I suppose. I don’t think it would be a good idea to outright tell them what their special talents are. After all, it’s something that all ponies have to figure out for themselves. Still, a push in the right direction couldn’t hurt, right?”
“It might, but I don’t know if they will remember things from the play well enough to help them.”
“You want me to tell you what field their cutie marks will be in or are you worried you’ll let out the secret like during Fluttershy’s fashion carrier?”
“I think I already know what it is. Besides, I didn’t blurt out that secret.”
“No, instead you blurted out the whole Spike likes Rarity secret. Pinkie even scolded you about it. Well, sort of anyway.”
“That wasn’t much of a secret in the first place.”
“True. However, feelings for another are usually blind to the one they are directed towards as well as the one who has them. When I was younger, I got some flowers for Valentine’s Day, but I never once figured out who they were from and they never came to me to tell me either.”
“What’s Valentine’s Day?”
“It’s a human version of Heart’s and Hooves Day.”
“Interesting. Are there any other holidays that are similar to ours?”
“Other than Christmas being sort of equivalent to Heartswarming Day, I’m unsure. I can’t really think of any holidays off the top of my head that are similar to yours. To be honest, I really don’t know of any other holidays of yours that I can think of right now either.”
“Well, I have several books that detail the many different holidays that we celebrate here in Equestria from the one’s that you mentioned and many more that you probably don’t know about.”
“Yeah, that’s going to be a problem.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I can’t read any of those books for some reason remember?”
“About that, I don’t really know why you wouldn’t be able to read that. It’s the same language as the writing on the cover. Here, let me show you.”
Twilight levitated one of the books out from the shelf and placed it in my lap. She followed the book over to me and jumped up onto the bed. She had to since barely her head came over the top of the mattress.
“See the cover here?”
I looked at the cover of the book she placed in front of me. It was one of her Daring Doo books. The first one if I wasn’t mistaken. She then opened the cover and inside the book was the same as the last book I tried to read. Perhaps there was something I wasn’t quite getting here.
“You said it was the same language as the cover. Is the cover in English or is it called Equestrian?”
“It’s Equestrian of course. What do you mean by English anyway?”
“There are a lot of different languages that humans speak. I speak English which happens to be the same language as Equestrian.”
“I see. So why is it that you can’t read the contents of the book? It’s also Equestrian.”
“It doesn’t look the same as the words on the cover.”
“Well, that’s because it’s cursive of course!”
I looked at the book again for a few seconds. I then calmly took my glasses off of my face and quickly facepalmed.
“Why is it that I start to think that something is just a little wrong with this place? This looks like something that a doctor would scribe on a prescription pad.”
I quickly materialized a pen and paper and the placed them on top of the book.
“This is how cursive is supposed to look like where I am from.”
I quickly wrote out three sentences in cursive. The rain in Spain flows mainly in the plains. The boy tossed the ball to his friend. Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman saved the day. I had to write the last sentence twice when I realized I had misspelled neighborhood, but I still managed to get all three down for Twilight to take a look at. She studied the sentences for a moment and then responded to it.
“These look really nice, but they aren’t in Equestrian cursive.”
“And that, my dear Twilight, is the pillar that had driven us apart.”
“I see. The different writing styles don’t mesh well together. Perhaps I can see if there are some books in the library that don’t use Equestrian cursive.”
“You can take your time with that. I could go for some breakfast right now. Have you had any breakfast yet?”
“No, I haven’t had any breakfast yet. The plan was for me to create a list of spells for you to practice. Then, the two of us would have breakfast together, or perhaps you’ve forgotten about it?”
“Not really, but I’m used to people not following directions. I guess I shouldn’t have worried about that with you though. Come on, Twilight. I have something that I want you to try out for breakfast.”
I got down off the bed and was instantly thankful for the long discussion. My morning problem had gone away by now. Talking about that to a pony would have been really awkward. At least Twilight wasn’t a child like the other three so she could handle talking about it, but I’m still worried she would try to force a little show and tell. I would never put that kind of thing past a scientist.
I let Twilight lead me to the kitchen area. I honestly could not figure out where it was until I was shown the way. It was especially odd since I honestly did not see a door there before. I was either completely blind, or the thing had just materialized there all of a sudden. At this point, things were starting to fall into a pattern of me forgetting about asking any questions. I had chaos magic so the world had decided to never make perfect sense again. I bet I would forget this at some point and complain about it again. Yay me.
“So, what is this trick you wanted to show me Seth?”
“Right. Let me show you something I would like you to taste test for me.”
I concentrated my magic and snapped my right fingers this time. On the table appeared a good size bowl filled with Cheerios. I was also right about the chaos magic. It seemed I had excellent control of it when I snapped my right fingers instead of my left fingers.
“What are these?”
“They’re a breakfast cereal. We call them Cheerios. I thought it would be appropriate for where I am now in part because they have the word cheer in them. The other half of that is because they are made using oats. Back on Earth, horses love oats. I’m not sure if ponies here love oats as well so it’s a bit of an experiment. That sounds right up your alley doesn’t it?”
“For your information, ponies do love oats as well. They’re a bit hard to come by is all.”
“I see. I guess that this is a bit of a letdown for me then. At least you won’t have to cook,” I ended lamely.
“You still don’t have anything to eat and I still need to fix something for both of us to drink.”
I gave her a flat look and snapped my fingers again. There on the table now was two bowls of Cheerios, two empty glasses and a pitcher of milk in between them. Next to my bowl was a small plate of bacon and a spoon. I was pretty impressed with my ability to use this magic like I can.
“Did you have to make this meat product here too? It creeps me out a little.”
“I’m an omnivore. I can eat just the cereal, but I also need protein to function.”
“Couldn’t you make a vegetable that’s good in protein like beans?”
“Ugh. I hate beans. Besides, you aren’t the one eating this, I am. It isn’t like I’m eating a pony or anything sentient from here. Not even to mention the fact that I created this from thin air with magic. I didn’t actually teleport this from somewhere or kill something myself to fix it. This is probably the first real bacon anywhere that I could say that no animals were harmed in the making of this product and be telling the truth. Heh, I wonder if I could get a vegan to eat this. Wouldn’t that be weird?”
“What’s a vegan?”
“Pretty much a human that has turned into an herbivore through their own devices.”
“If that’s the case, then you could work towards becoming a vegan too! You wouldn’t have to eat meat if you didn’t want to.”
“Putting aside the fact that a lot of vegans or, to a lesser extent, vegetarians get ridiculed for being that way, I could never see myself becoming that. I love eating bacon, cheeseburgers, burritos, chicken, meat lover’s pizzas, and other things that are like that. I honestly trend more to the meat side of omnivores than the vegetable side. It is who I am. Of course that doesn’t mean I’m going to go out and kill some chickens or cows to eat them. I’m not a monster after all. I’m more of a self-defense pacifist. I’m not going to hurt you unless you try to hurt me first. That’s something of a creed I’ve developed from once being a bully and then being the one who was bullied. Having been on both sides of that coin gave me quite the perspective on it. Of course, hearing myself out loud like this reminds me that even though you understand that I’m an omnivore, that doesn’t mean you want to see me put it into practice.”
I snapped my fingers again and the plate of bacon disappeared.
“I suppose I can eat that later when you aren’t around.”
“I’m glad you decided to do that, Seth. The not eating in front of me part not the eating it later part I mean.”
“I understand Twilight. Although, there is something else I want to do instead.”
“What would that be?”
I snapped my fingers again and in my right hand appeared a can of soda.
“What is that?”
“This is my sweet, sweet vice. The source of my greatest pain and sweetest pleasure. A can of Pepsi.”
I popped the tab and literally chugged the twelve ounce can all the way down to just drops. The carbonation burned a bit, but I was so happy to have it that I powered through it. Once finished, I crushed the can in my hand and then snapped my fingers again to make it disappear. I then covered my mouth and let out a nice solid belch.
“Excuse me,” I said as I blushed a little.
“Well, that was a bit horrifying and disgusting. Let’s just get breakfast out of the way so we can get to our work for the day.”
“I concur,” I said with a faux British accent.
We both walked to our respective seats and ate out breakfast in silence. Well, for the most part. I did get scolded once for chewing with my mouth open. I almost expected her to follow up with an old moniker that my mom used whenever I did that back home. You know the whole ‘were you raised in a barn’ shtick? Then I remembered who was telling me this and almost started to chuckle. Thankfully, I caught myself, apologized for doing so, and the rest of breakfast went by in relative silence.
After we had finished, cleaning up was a breeze. I simply snapped my fingers and everything I created had disappeared. Both of us then walked back into the main room of the library. I then noticed that the bed was still there. I snapped my fingers again and the bed turned back into the couch.
“Alright. Time to start your magic training and to begin studying this coin,” she finished by holding up the coin in question.
“How did you get a hold of that?”
“You left it lying on the floor after Pinkie touched it last night. I simply grabbed it then and have kept a hold of it since.”
So much for me keeping track of it. Then again I’m glad she had it instead of Pinkie Pie. I might never have seen it again. Not that she would have kept it from me, but I was willing to bet she would’ve put it somewhere and then forgotten about it.
“I have the list of spells that I want you to practice today on that table there.”
She pointed to the table in the middle of the room. Then, she levitated it and brought it over to me. I grabbed it out of the air and unfurled it.
“I want you to go out to that area where you unleashed that massive magical blast and practice them out there where it’s safe.”
“Can’t I practice them here? I’d rather not be too far away from that coin if it’s all the same.”
“It’ll be fine, Seth. I want to study this coin without any interruptions or distractions.”
“I honestly don’t think I’ll be a distraction and I’m not going to interrupt your work here.”
“Some of those spells will make things very distracting. I want you to go practice elsewhere.”
“Oh come on Twilight.”
She gave me a glare of annoyance. I matched her glare with one of my own. Suddenly, her horn started to glow and before I knew what was happening, there was a flash and I was standing outside of the library door. I blinked a few times and then got a little upset.
“Twilight!” I yelled as I tried opening the door. It was magically sealed. “Open up and let me in Twilight!”
“Go practice your spells!” she yelled back.
“Come on Twilight!” I said as I started knocking on the door.
She didn’t answer me.
“At least let me get my shoes and hat!”
Still no answer. I began pounding harder on the door.
“Twilight!!!”
Still nothing.
“WILLLLLLMAAAAAA!!!”
At that, something fell on top of my head. I looked down and saw my shoes and hat. I quickly shook my head and put them on. As I finished, I looked up and noticed all the stares I was getting from the ponies of Ponyville. Making a scene like I did will earn you some stares. I quickly became uncomfortable with the attention I was receiving. I didn’t want to become invisible in front of them or else I might make them panic a little.
That was when my brain kicked in a bad idea. It was a mixture of being stared at combined with the frustration of not being allowed to stay in the library to practice the spells she gave me. It revolved around her not wanting to be distracted and my not wanting to be the center of attention.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think this idea through. I ended up just acting upon it. I brought forth my magic and kept it coming. My entire hand started to glow instead of just the area around the tattoo. Then, with a yell, I punched the ground with my fist.
“Ground Pound!”
As my fist connected, a giant wave of light engulfed the entire town and quite a ways away from it as well. I didn’t actually see it, but it was the image I had in my mind when I used it. If that was the case then it most likely mirrored what I was thinking then.
Eventually, the light subsided and I looked around. The magic had unfortunately worked.
There were no more ponies in Ponyville.
It was now entirely populated by humans.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
Once I saw the former ponies, I knew I had really fucked up.
There wasn’t any real reaction to the change for a bit. They were honestly too stunned to do so. Unfortunately, I reacted instead. The inherent problem with changing them into humans was the fact that since they didn’t wear clothing normally, they didn’t come with any clothing now either. I was basically looking at a bunch of naked pony-humans.
That was quite an interesting sight to behold. The first thing I noticed was the lack of clothing of course. The fact that there were almost no men around made it hard to not stare. Staring like an idiot lead me to the next thing. They still kept their wings and horns. Earth ponies ended up looking like regular people, but Pegasus ponies had wings coming out from their back just below the shoulder blades. The wings themselves were about two feet long and all of them were white. The unicorns all still had their horns. They seemed to extend about four to six inches from their foreheads right at the beginning of the hairline.
Another interesting thing was that they all kept their cutie marks as well. It was now about halfway down their thighs on both legs. It was a bit intriguing. Everyone also seemed to keep the same hair color as their mane color. It was even styled in the same manner as before.
The strangest thing that I seemed to notice was everyone was Caucasian. I was honestly expecting more diversity or for their skin color to match their fur color, but that was not the case. Some of them were tanned, but ultimately they were all very much white.
As much as I wanted to keep staring at them, they were all pretty jiggly in one way or another; I realized that I needed to change them back. Unfortunately, when I attempted to do so, it didn’t work. I tried several times, but to no avail. After the fifth attempt, the crowd began to react. It was utter pandemonium. Everyone just started running in every direction.
The only thing left that I knew to do was to give them all clothing. I ended up trying a different approach to that. I crossed my arms at the wrist and snapped my fingers on both hands. That effort seemed to work. Everyone was now wearing a toga since it was the simplest thing I could think of. Trying to get everyone a custom piece of clothing would have been absurd… and probably would have worked too. I had already done this, though, and it was acceptable for now so I left it alone. Changing it now would have somehow made something go horribly wrong. At least that’s what I thought would happen if I tried.
This act, however, had no bearing on the pony-humans. They continued to run amok. They were just stampeding everywhere. Thankfully, that made me think of getting some help from Applejack. That seemed right up her alley.
The problem now was getting there. I had no idea where her farm was. I hadn’t seen a single apple tree while I was there. I also had no idea how to navigate there from anywhere. They always used cut-scenes to bring the audience to Sweet Apple Acres. Somebody should have really made a map of Ponyville and posted that sucker online. Of course, I probably missed it somewhere so what do I know?
I had to think hard about this. I had no idea where the farm was. I wasn’t even sure of the general direction. I also had yet to learn how to teleport anywhere so I couldn’t be sure of my success getting there with that method.
You know what? Chaos magic got me into this mess. Since I didn’t have any useful spells, chaos magic will have to help bail me out. The question is how?
“When in doubt, think like a crazy person,” I thought out loud.
The first thought that came into my head I quickly snapped my fingers and let it happen. Instantly, fireworks started to go off in the sky. It worked well, as all the pony-humans stopped to look up at the fireworks. I wasn’t sure how long that would last, so I needed to think of something else soon. What would help calm them down?
It was relatively easy for the next spell. I snapped my fingers and quickly a disembodied head appeared in the sky. If it wasn’t in the image of Celestia, I think that probably would have been a disaster. I had to do this fast while I still had their attention.
“Citizens of Ponyville do not be alarmed! There has been a magical accident that has transformed you all into a creature known as a human. Do not worry as the spell is not permanent. It will wear off before the end of the day. Rest assured that we will try to remove it sooner to ease your minds, but do not concern yourselves. Please remain calm and try to go about your day as you would normally.”
I managed to get that last part off as her image faded from the sky. If anyone could calm down the ponies of Ponyville, it was Princess Celestia. Or at least a facsimile of her anyway.
I looked around to see if it worked. There seemed to be a tenuous peace that permeated the area. It didn’t seem like anyone was comfortable, but they were at least not panicking like they were before. In reality, I had hoped that the spell wasn’t permanent. I hadn’t thought of it as permanent, but I hadn’t exactly thought it through in the first place. If I had, I would never have done it at all. Chaos is one thing, but wholesale panic in the streets isn’t funny.
Speaking of things that weren’t funny, some of the pony-humans were giving me some looks that made my skin crawl. Of course, I still stuck out from them because I was the only one not wearing a toga at the time. I wonder if I should speak to Rarity. She could definitely make something much nicer for everyone to wear. Knowing her she was probably already doing that for her own attire.
Wait. Did my head just tingle?
“Seth. What is going on in Ponyville ? I feel a disturbance of harmony coming from there. ”
“Ah, so that’s what that was. There was a bit of a mishap with my chaos magic. ”
“What kind of a mishap ?”
“I kind of accidentally turned everyone here in Ponyville into anthro-ponies. ”
“You did what !?!”
“They all look human except for the wings and horns, but yes they have been turned into humans. I am very sorry about this and I’ve already calmed down the populace. ”
“I am very unhappy about this Seth. I wanted you to study in magic from Twilight. ”
“And Twilight gave me a list of spells to learn while she went and studied that magic coin that Discord gave me. ”
“So instead of helping you study to learn magic, she is currently studying Discord’s coin ?”
I swear I could hear gears shifting in my head. Too bad I didn’t understand what they meant.
“That’s right. It’s partially what led me to this situation. Although, I think a lot of it was my fault and not hers. ”
“I believe I need to have a chat with my faithful student about this. ”
“I don’t really think that’s necessary. I’m not exactly happy about being away from that coin, but I do think that we need to take a closer look at it. ”
“While that may be so, it is not what I asked her to do. I want you to learn from her, and not just have her tell you what to do and send you away. Doing that will also not help you learn the magic of friendship either. ”
“I’m a bit hesitant of that part in the first place, Celestia. ”
“While you are here, you are a citizen of Equestria. Therefore you obey the laws that I decree. ”
“Okay, now I know you’re just making shit up. ”
“You forget, as the ruler I can in fact make shit up. It comes with the territory. ”
“Hearing you swear is really weird. It doesn’t really matter that much, but I’m just saying that is all. ”
“Indeed and I will endeavor only to do so with you. My little ponies don’t deserve that kind of language. ”
There was a bit of silence after she said that. In hindsight, I think it was because she used a My Little Ponies reference again. I would never really know, but I’d like to think that anyway.
“This discussion has gotten off topic. The situation sounds like it has been quelled for the time being. Therefore, when I finish tending to some royal duties, I will travel to Ponyville myself to assess the situation and to have a chat with Twilight Sparkle about your studies in magic and friendship. ”
I wanted to say something to her about that, but I really didn’t know what. I had no way to prevent her from doing what she wished. She had my memories and her ancient wisdom. Any argument I could try would probably be countered by her in some manner I likely would never think of.
At a loss for what to do, I simply started walking. Everywhere I looked I noticed the pony-humans trying their best to follow Celestia’s advice. Well, my advice with a sugar-coating of Celestia. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down and all that jazz. I was still feeling bad about doing this to them, though. I was just glad that no one was noticing me anymore. They were too busy looking over their new forms and adjusting to them.
Thinking about this more led me to a weird thought. Why are they all able to walk and run so easily after the change? If you looked at the biology of animals, you would know that switching from quadrupedal to bipedal movement would be pretty hard. Then, I thought about it for a moment. Why would it be so different? I don’t mean for normal animals. I’m talking about these ponies. There are lots of instances in the show where you see them up on two legs doing things like a normal two-legged person would. I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me that they could alternate as ponies and not worry about it. It seemed like it was in their very d.n.a. to do so.
Either that or it was just more chaos magic bullshit. I kind of want to lean on that more.
Speaking of just being on that train, I noticed somewhere I wanted to be.
Sweet Apple Acres.
I looked all around and noticed I had walked all the way out of town and to her place without even noticing it. I didn’t even see anything I would recognize as having led me here. There was also the fact that getting to her was absolutely unnecessary now.
“I might as well see what’s going on here. No sense in wasting the trip.”
Luckily for me, I was at their house and not one of those many barns they have. I could easily get them mixed up. I only knew I was at the right place because outside in her rocking chair was Granny Smith.
I honestly assumed it was Granny Smith. Other than the rocking chair, I had no real indication of who she was. Like I had thought, my stupid spell had made its way out here and Granny Smith had been turned human. Thankfully, my other genius spell made it out here too. That would really have been a ‘what has been seen’ moment.
Like everyone else Granny Smith had turned human and kept her mane color for her hair. She had a tanned skin tone that almost made her look like a different color altogether. Thankfully she was still asleep rocking her chair back and forth. If she came to and saw herself like that, I would be very concerned about her having a heart attack. Without any doctors who knew how to work on people, I highly doubt she would survive.
That thought really put me in a daze. What about everyone in the range of that spell? What might have happened if I had turned a Pegasus pony human in midair? Even if they still had their wings, there was no guarantee that they could use them in this form. What if I was responsible for ponies falling to their death?
Thinking these things really made me uncomfortable. Imagining them in my head really didn’t help either. I decided to walk past Granny Smith without waking her up or else those thoughts might just become too real for me to handle.
I walked up to the front door and knocked a few times. No one answered. A few more tries and I gave up that approach. I was about to yell for someone, but quickly remembered about Granny Smith. That would definitely wake her up.
Luckily, I was spared trying to test my luck on just walking into their house. A barking sound drew my attention to my left. It was Winona, Applejack’s pet dog.
“Hey there puppy. I don’t suppose you could take me to Applejack could you?”
She barked twice and ran off into the field. I ran off following her as well as I could. What surprised me most while running after her was that I wasn’t winded after running a few minutes. I’ve not been able to do that since I was a teenager. I was a two hundred and thirty pound diabetic and I wasn’t currently panting while running. The only thing that seemed the same was that I wasn’t running very fast. I was going maybe a bit faster than I think I normally could, but not by a whole bunch.
After running for a little over ten minutes, I saw who I was looking for. Applejack, or who I assumed was Applejack, was sitting against a tree with her Stetson hat covering her face. The first thought that came to me was that she tried bucking a tree with her human legs and got hurt. That thought gave me a little burst of speed and I quickly closed the distance to her.
“Applejack! Are you alright?” I yelled about forty feet away.
She took her hat off of her head and looked my way.
I’m pretty sure I tripped over something as I ended up tumbling over to her after she took her hat off. I ended up landing face up and quickly looked up to her.
Holy crap she was stunning as a human. She was tanned like I had expected a farmer to be. My dad was a farmer until college and I could recognize it immediately. She was lithe, but from the look of her arms I could tell she had quite the muscle tone to her. Her freckles only stayed on her face and were nowhere else on her as I expected them to be in a similar fashion to myself. Her eyes and hair were the same color as when she was a pony as well. Her hair was even in the same ponytail style as before. Her toga was ripped in a few places and it took me a second to realize she had dragged herself to this tree.
“Should I throw out a falling for you joke or should I ask if you’re doing alright?” I quipped.
She chuckled a little.
“Ah’m fine. My leg kinda got hurt while ah was buckin’ this here tree. It was my own durn fault for trying to keep buckin’ these trees after I got turned inta’ this. This darn clothing is a might uncomfortable though.”
“Yeah, well you should keep it on anyway. Even though as a guy I’d love the show, as a gentleman I feel like warning you to keep this area and this area around your waist covered or you would be considered indecent by human standards.”
I emphasized that by waving my hand over her breasts and her waist while I was talking.
“Donit mean that when you was here at the beginning that you weren’t decent? You didn’t have a thing covering that top part of ya back then.”
“The top part is called a chest and it’s different for men than women. Breasts on women are kind of like udders on a cow. Although, it kind of just ended up that way that women ended up covering them up. It’s a cultural thing for humans.”
At hearing my explanation, she pulled on her toga and looked down at her breasts. I halfway expected her to try and squeeze them to see if I was telling the truth, but she merely stared down at them. Eventually, she put her toga back in place and looked back at me.
“You called yourself a gentleman, but ah also noticed you starin’ a bit. Not very gentleman like if’n ya ask me.”
“I’m also a guy. So sue me. Do you need help standing or are you good?”
Applejack slowly made her way to her feet. She hesitated putting her right foot down. It was obviously the one she tried to kick the tree with. After a hesitant moment, she looked like she was in no pain. She then looked up and smiled.
“Looks like ah’m alright.”
“Good. I think we should go check on the others. I’m a little worried about them as well.”
“That sounds like a good idea. We’ll split up. Ah’ll head out to Fluttershy’s place and you head back to town.”
“There’s a problem with that. I have no idea how I got to your farm.”
“Beg your pardon?”
“I literally started walking and somehow I managed to find myself in front of your farm. I have no idea how to get back. I’m not even sure which way Ponyville is from here.”
“Fine. We’ll both head over to Fluttershy’s and then we can split up from there.”
“Sounds like a plan boss.”
I then hesitated.
“Perhaps some better clothes for you first would be nice.”
I snapped my fingers and clothes changed in front of me. Instead of the toga that I hastily gave everyone, she was now wearing a flannel checkerboard shirt and some denim overalls. She was also in some nice cowboy boots and her Stetson hat completed the look.
“There. That looks a lot better and it’s better to run in.”
“I thank ya kindly, but we need tah git over to Fluttershy’s in a hurry. Let’s go!”
She ran past me with Winona in tow and I followed her back in the direction her house was in.
The only thought I had at the time was making sure Fluttershy was okay.
I could only hope that her animal friends were still her friends.
Author's Note
I almost turned that tingle into my own Spidey-sense, but I decided that would be annoying and too difficult to use properly. Just an FYI from the storyboards.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
No matter where you go, there you are.
It’s a quote that was made from my favorite author, AdmiralTigerclaw. In short, it really didn’t seem to matter that Fluttershy was now human. She was still able to communicate with animals and apparently she still had the Stare.
This was quite evident as Applejack and I arrived at Fluttershy’s place. As it turned out, it was the other way down the road I walked when I first came to this land. So much for getting lost if I went the wrong way. Then again, I somehow wound up there without trying so who knows what may have happened.
When we arrived, however, the first thing that happened was misunderstandings. All we saw was Fluttershy in front of a couple of bears. As a human, I don’t need to tell you how scary that would be for a normal person. Applejack proceeded to pull some rope out of her overalls and charged in with a lasso. I remembered putting some rope in her large front pocket, but that isn’t where she pulled it from. It honestly looked as if it materialized in her hand when it was hidden from view. Either that or she moved it during the run, but I dared to dream of a magical Applejack. I then chuckled loudly as I imagined the elements of harmony as sailor senshi from Sailor Moon.
The chuckle caught Applejack’s attention in mid-sprint and she looked over to me like she was about to yell something. Unfortunately, the chuckle also caught the attention of the bears near Fluttershy. They both let out a bellow and started to sprint towards us.
I’d love to say that I did something to help. That I even moved out of the way to let AJ do her thing. Unfortunately, I simply locked up. There was a pair of bears running at me. I was happy that I didn’t soil myself afterwards.
“STOOOOOP!!!”
That yell shocked me out of my stupor. Mostly because it was Fluttershy who did it. On cue, the bears stopped their charge towards us and looked back to Fluttershy.
“That is not how we treat our friends! Now you both apologize to them for scaring them!”
They started to grunt and howl something that only Fluttershy would understand. That was when she gave the Stare. It may have been directed towards them, but right behind them was me and I also caught an eyeful of it. It was like a shudder going down your spine mixed with a freezing, tingling sensation all over your body that you just wanted to stop.
The two bears quickly turned around and growled out something that I assumed was an apology. After having seen the Stare, I was somehow coming to my senses.
“I suppose it’s alright, bears. How about we agree to never try to hurt each other, alright?”
The bears grunted out something and the one closest to me stuck out its paw. I edged a little closer and shook it. I was shaking hands with a bear. Sanity is laughing at me now I just know it.
“While you’re here, Seth, you ought to apologize to them for that earthquake you caused.”
“I thought you were going to do that.”
“I haven’t been able to do that yet. However, now you can do that yourself while you’re here.”
“Should I just apologize to the bears and let them spread that around or should I wait for more animals to show up?”
“You can start with Mr. and Mrs. Bear and then we’ll see if anyone else wants an apology afterwards.”
“I suppose that can work.”
I looked the bears in the eyes. Holy crap that was some unsettling looks.
“I’m sorry about causing the earthquake the other day. It was an accident. Are we still okay? I don’t want any bad blood between us.”
The bears grunted a growled to each other a few times and then they nodded their heads and walked away. I was quite relieved how that had transpired.
The relief was short-lived as an angry Applejack grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me in close to her.
“What in tarnation were ya thinkin’? You never laugh at a bear!”
“Hey, you were ready to just charge into that situation.”
“That’s cuz I thought my friend was in danger! What were you doin’? You were just laughin’!”
I looked away.
“I’m sorry Applejack. Where I’m from, bears are not friendly towards humans and whenever they meet in the wild one or the other ends up dead. I once saw a picture of a bear knawing on a human. That’s something you don’t just forget that easily when you see a bear in front of you.”
Even though I had said that, I didn’t want to look back at Applejack. I had no idea how she would react. Fortunately, she sighed and let go of my shirt.
“Ah suppose ah shouldn’t blame ya. At least not after hearin’ that. You were right that I was about to charge in muhself so I guess we both didna react like we shoulda. Come on now. Let’s go talk ta Fluttershy.”
Applejack started walking over to Fluttershy, and I started a little after she did. Honestly, this entire situation has really shown just how awful I am. Changing them to humans against their will, potentially responsible for hurting who knows how many ponies, hitting on Applejack, showing just how much of a coward I am in the face of danger; I honestly wished I was back home and not potentially ruining lives. Let’s face it, Celestia was right. I did need lessons in friendship.
“Fluttershy, are you alright hon?”
“Yes, I’m fine. I was never in any danger.”
My thoughts were completely destroyed after I saw Fluttershy up close. Too bad my mouth didn’t follow suit.
“Wow, now I know why Photo Finish made you a model.”
Fluttershy blushed instantly and Applejack just gave me a stare that rivaled Fluttershy’s. I instantly covered my mouth.
“I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to say that out loud!”
Fluttershy just blushed deeper and Applejack just looked back to Fluttershy and proceeded to wrap her up in a hug.
Seriously though, if you’ve ever seen Heidi Klum, you would think of Fluttershy only younger and with Fluttershy’s hair style and eye color. She even had her face partially hidden by her hair like she did as a pony. She even had that angel look with her wings folded behind her back.
This whole thing with them being human was starting to become very uncomfortable in a new way. As ponies, they were just cute little ponies that you couldn’t help dawwwing over. Now, they were very real and very human-like. Not to mention the fact that none of them would be considered less than a solid eight back home. Seriously, no one here was even close to overweight or ugly. As a guy that was hot. As a brony it was weird in ways I couldn’t even describe.
I couldn’t help but think that maybe this was Discord’s plan. Leave me to my own devices and make myself go nuts and free him. It sounded like a good plan too. It would sew discord in myself and in the mane six at the same time while also freeing him in the process.
I bent down and sat on the road with my knees in front of me. I then rested my arms on my knees and my head on my arms. I had no idea what I was doing here and it was definitely not fun anymore. That really was the difference between real life and fantasy.
Despite the fact that I loved to look at my watch, I had no idea how long it was until I heard Applejack speak up.
“Hey there! Hurry up! We got ta git to Ponyville and check on everypony!”
“You two on go ahead. I’m going to sit here for a bit. I need to think about stuff.”
“What about everypony in Ponyville? They could be frightened and scared.”
“I already took care of it. I made everyone clothing and then projected an image of Celestia to talk them down. I had her tell them it was temporary and to remain calm until the spell wore off. The only ones I’m worried about are Pegasus ponies that couldn’t fly or anyone like Applejack who tried doing something in their new form.”
“Then what the hay are ya havin’ ta think about?”
“This whole situation is my fault in the first place. I got frustrated and now everyone is paying for it. I’m just a burden here. I’m an unpredictable element that could put everyone in danger unless I think through my every action several times over before I take a single step. I can’t be impulsive or thoughtless or reckless because so many ponies could suffer if I so much as sneezed wrong. And if that’s all I ever do, I could become a jittery wreck like Twilight did when she couldn’t come up with that friendship report. And if I was like that, I could end up doing something bad just like she did with her spell. The difference is that anything I do could easily end up on an even grander scale than what happened then. Case in point,” I said as I waved in their direction.
“I think you’re overexaggeratin’ the problem a bit. Though if it makes ya feel any better, ah forgive ya fer turnin me inta a human.”
“I do too.”
“I also forgive you.”
I looked up at the sound of the new voice. It was Rainbow Dash. It would be hard not to recognize that hair. Just like everyone else, she was looking mighty fine. She was a bit thinner and sleeker than most everyone I had seen. It was probably an unconscious effort to keep her aerodynamic.
“I came from Twilight’s place. I was on my way to check on Fluttershy, but I was going to go looking for you next. Twilight wants you back at the library to talk about this mess. She also wanted to let you know that I accidentally touched your coin too.”
I facepalmed.
“Why did-wait. You said accidentally. Forget about it. Did anyone else touch that coin or was it just you?”
“It was just me. She tripped coming up the stairs from whatever she was doing down there and I caught her, but the coin fell out of her hoof-“
“Hand,” I corrected. “Unless she’s still a pony, both of you now have hands.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Hey, I wonder how Lyra is taking this.”
I half-sagged my face at this announcement.
“Lyra Heartstrings is here somewhere?” I asked without a hint of enthusiasm.
“Yeah, of course she is,” answered Rainbow Dash. “You mean she hasn’t introduced herself to you yet?”
“If she’s anything like people make her out to be back home, then I think I may be glad at that fact. She can be portrayed as an OCD patient when it comes to humans. And no, don’t ask about it. It’s a form of crazy.”
“I honestly don’t really care. Let’s just hurry up and get back so we can fix this problem you made.”
I rocked back once and sprang to my feet. I then took another look at Rainbow Dash. I knew immediately that she shouldn’t be in a toga.
“Before we go, you need something more appropriate Dash.”
“Like what?”
“Well, I gave everyone a toga to wear because it was the easiest thing for me to think of. Fluttershy is the only one I’ve seen that makes it look appropriate. I gave Applejack some farmer’s clothes and as I look at you, I know you need something more suitable to go with you than a toga.”
“I don’t really care. I’m fine with this. In fact, I’d honestly rather not even wear this if Twilight hadn’t said something about being indecent for humans. What does that even mean?”
For some reason, I didn’t mind explaining this again.
“Basically, on a human if this area or this area is visible, it is considered indecent. It’s a cultural thing and has led to some interesting problems in our culture. Though, in your case it may be a bit funny.”
“Why is that?” she asked in a bit of an irritated tone.
“Well, when someone goes without any clothes in front of other people, it is called ‘streaking’. Whenever I see you flying with that rainbow contrail of yours, I think of a rainbow streaking across the sky. Hopefully you understand where I’m going with this, right?”
She looked like she did and looked away as she crossed her arms in front of her. I was honestly glad I was having this conversation. It was definitely making me feel a bit better about this. Everything was still awkward, but it was doing wonders for my mood. Speaking of awkward…
“By the way, Dash, you look quite lovely as a human.”
She looked at me wide-eyed and blushed. She then proceeded to slap me across the face.
“Now why in tarnation would ya go and do that for, Seth?”
“Well, she does! Seriously! Why is it that every mare that turned into a woman is somehow ten different degrees of sexy? This is both exciting and disturbing to me at the same time! I’m trying to act casual about it, but it just seems to creep in there on its own! It’s like having a having a beauty pageant in my house and half the contestants are family! Gah!”
I snapped my fingers and Rainbow Dash was instantly changed into a Supergirl outfit minus the cape and the back was exposed to let her wings out.
“What in the hay is this outfit you put me in?”
“It’s the outfit of a superhero back where I’m from. It’s missing the cape, though, since it would get in the way of your wings. She was super-strong, super-fast, and super-pretty. I thought you might appreciate it.”
She looked down at it for a bit. It seemed like she didn’t like the skirt, but she also seemed to give a more appraising look.
“I guess it’s alright,” she said in an unconvincing tone.
“Trust me. Back home it would be considered pretty awesome to wear it; especially if you wore it. I’m honestly picking these out with you girls in mind.”
“What about me?”
I turned to Fluttershy. I was a bit surprised to hear her speak up.
“Oh, well, um, you said you were picking out our outfits to suit us. Why didn’t you change mine? You know, if you don’t mind answering, which you don’t have to.”
“Trust me, Fluttershy, with that hair and that toga you remind me of Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love. She was renowned for her beauty and her grace.”
“Oh, well, uh, that’s, that’s good.”
She started blushing very deeply as she continued to look uncomfortable. I knew that look very well.
“Hey Rainbow Dash!" I yelled almost too loudly. "You said that Twilight wanted to see us right? Well, let’s get going then shall we?”
“Finally! Come on! Let’s get moving!”
She emphasized that by taking off to the sky and headed towards Ponyville. I looked back to see Fluttershy still looking a bit embarrassed.
“You two as well. Let’s get moving.”
“I honestly don’t know what ta make of him, Fluttershy. He keeps actin’ like a different folk every time ah see him.”
I could hear her say that, but she had a point. I seemed to be shifting moods way too often since I got here. I hoped it was just sensory overload. At this point, I just wanted to fix things and go back to the library and wait for Discord to show up so I can rip his ass a new one for this. Magic may be cool, but sometimes it’s just a big pain.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
Obligatory Lyra is Nuts Chapter
This day seemed to be mocking me.
By the time I had gotten back to Ponyville, everything seemed, more or less, the same as when I had left. There was apparent unease, but no chaos or panic anywhere. It was a good sign that everyone was still confident in Celestia and that my ruse was still working. For how long, I had no clue.
The four of us arrived at the library without any delays. Unfortunately, what was waiting there was a rather eager delay.
Lyra Heartstrings had found out about the human.
Thankfully, with everyone turned human she had no idea which one was the real human. I was not about to let her know it was me either. I had heard a lot about Lyra and her obsession of humans on many a sites back on the web. For all I knew, she could try to rape me in her current form just so she could have a baby from a human. I think the others would stop her, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t try.
Of course, would it really be rape if it was a hot chick going after me? As I looked at her from a distance when we recognized her and stopped a ways away, I realized from the way she looked, I might try and resist her for a minute and then probably give in. I think my brain would not be able to tell the difference and that would lead to bad decision making on my part. I honestly wouldn’t be sure whether or not I would hate myself afterwards either. I would rather just not have the problem surface at all.
“I think we are all in agreement that Lyra should not know that I am an actual human right?”
Everyone nodded.
“What about your name? She’s gonna ask ‘bout ya since we aren’t usually seen with ya and Seth sure ain’t a normal name. Least not for a pony.”
“That’s an easy one. I can just use my dad’s nickname for me. It’ll work for this.”
“Really? What’s that?”
“Buckshot.”
The three of them just stared.
“If anyone asks, I’m a new hand for Applejack. I would think Buckshot would work great for apple bucking am I right?”
Rainbow Dash burst into laughter.
“Hey! I thought I did a good job coming up with that! Or are you laughing at my name?”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said between fits of laughter, “You’ll never understand why that’s funny!”
Great. An inside joke. That was going to bug me for a bit.
“Alright then, since Applejack’s a terrible liar and Fluttershy probably won’t want to talk, I’ll run the story with Lyra. Dash, you back me up and Applejack if I ask you to confirm something just say yes and hopefully we can get past her without Lyra trying to make any foals with me.”
They all looked at me with disgust mixed with confusion.
“The internet can be a scary place. Let’s just go.”
They all nodded and Rainbow Dash led the way to the library. Because of the proximity we had to the library, we were able to hear Lyra's shouting rather quickly.
“Do you hear me Twilight? I want to see the human! It’s important!”
“Lyra! What are you yelling about?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Lyra turned to our group and started talking without seeming to notice our attire.
“Is that you Rainbow Dash? Good. You can tell Twilight to let me in. It’s important.”
“What is it that’s so important that you have to practically beat down the door to Twilight’s place?”
“It isn’t even Twilight’s place! It’s the town library! Just because she lives there doesn’t mean she can close it up if she wants to!”
Of all the times for someone to remember it’s a public place, it’s now.
“I’m sure your talk with Twilight can come when everypony doesn’t look like this anymore!”
“What are you saying!?! This is the best thing that has ever happened!”
Holy crap! She emphasized her point by pumping up her ‘assets’ if you catch my drift. There’s barely a man alive who can resist something like that!
Too bad she noticed she noticed my lack of resistance.
“I see there’s one of you who can see the charms of a human female,” she said as she seemed to look me over appraisingly. “It’s too bad you’re quite chubby. Who are you exactly?”
If I took every time someone called me chubby or some variation of it personally, there would be a nationwide manhunt for my ass.
“My name’s Buckshot. I’m the new helping hoof out at Sweet Apple Acres. Today was supposed to be my first day there, but now I can’t seem to be of any use considering that I’m some weird hairless ape.”
“That’s a horrible thing to say!” she said almost in disgust. “There is nothing wrong with this form! In fact, I am here to see if I can get Twilight to ask the Princess if she can keep me in this form!”
“That’s what you want to ask Twilight?” asked Rainbow Dash, “I thought I heard you say you wanted to see the human!”
“I heard that the human could use magic. I’ve never heard of humans being able to use magic before. Perhaps they’ve adapted in the wilderness. Either way, I’m willing to bet that the human is the one who caused this and if so I want him to make sure I stay this way. If he can’t, then I want the Princess to let me stay this way before the spell wears off.”
“Ah don’t know, it sounds like ya ain’t tellin’ us something. Either ya tell us or ya ain’t gettin’ in ta see Twilight.”
She looked nervous for a second and then sighed.
“Alright, but I’m only telling you this so you’ll let me in. You will let me in to see the human if I tell you right?”
“Sure we will,” I answered for the group. Applejack looked like she was going to object, but I waved her off in a way Lyra couldn’t see.
“The real reason I want to see the human…” she looked left and right and then leaned in, “is so that he can show me just how to be a human.”
“Ooooookaaaaay…” I said in a tone that almost begged her to continue.
“You know… everything about being a human,” she said in a semi-seductive voice.
I fucking knew it. She’s just as big a perv when it comes to humans as any guy I know. There’s no question in my mind that she would’ve pounced on me if she knew I was the only real human here. I honestly wouldn’t put it past her to jump some random guy before the spell wore off just so she could try and experiment. Time for a redirect.
“I wonder if that one fellow that gave us these odd clothes was that human,” I said to no one in particular.
“What did you say?” Lyra said from two inches away from my face.
I knee jerked away a bit. She seemed to just Pinkie teleport into my face. She was about two steps away from losing her mind in glee, I could tell.
“Yeah, there was this fellow who looked at us and said that we didn’t look right at all. Then, he snapped his little things on his hoof-“
“Fingers! They’re called fingers.” She interrupted.
“Alright, his finger hooves and suddenly we were in these getups. He said that these looked about right and kept walking on past us and Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Did he have a horn?”
“Come to think of it, no he didn’t. I’ve seen a-“
“That doesn’t matter! Which way did you say he went?”
“Well he went past Sweet Apples Acres in the opposite direction as we were headed to Ponyville.”
She squealed and then did something I only half expected. She grabbed me and kissed me on the lips. She didn’t give me any tongue which was something else I was half expecting and after a few seconds she stopped and smiled.
“Thank you so much! I’ll see you all later! I need to catch up with him quickly!”
After saying her goodbye, she started running off towards the way we came. The only reason I know is because I was still stunned from the kiss and she spun me around as she ran past us. I had no way to process this situation properly. I just got kissed by humanform Lyra. As sad as this sounds, it was also my first kiss. She was a pony. Well, she was very human right now. Damn you conflicting emotions!
I came around to the violent shaking that Rainbow Dash was giving me.
“Snap out of it weirdo!”
“You know, maybe I ought to at least give consideration to clop.”
“What the hay are talking about!?!”
I shook my head quickly.
“Nevermind. Let’s head inside.”
“Ah’m not so sure it was all that nice sendin’ Lyra off on that wild goose hunt.”
“To be honest, I was going to let her inside and show her that there was no human hiding in there, but then she would’ve gotten all grabby with Twilight and then we would’ve needed to subdue her and I don’t think any of us would want to resort to that.”
“Ah suppose yer right.”
I let everyone else into the library first. Then, I scuttle-walked in myself. This tree library needs to grow a bit more. That is just getting annoying. As I rose to my full height, I noticed the room’s other occupants.
Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and Rarity were all standing on the opposite side of the room. While Twilight was still in her toga, Rarity had switched into something completely different. It was an impressive full length dress that ended about six inches from the floor; just enough to show off her feet. It was sporting a nice sequin design that seemed to slowly wrap around the dress in a spiral. The dress was a nice, deep shade of green and the sequins themselves matched her blue-grey eyes perfectly. The dress was strapless and she seemed to wear it perfectly like she had known how to from the start. Her hair, in its normal style, draped over the front of her dress instead of hanging behind her head. All in all, it was a very impressive style from a pony obsessed with style.
The fact that Pinkie was a nudist was predictable, however. A quick glance and I averted my eyes. I may have gotten away with looking before, but with five other women in there I knew it would have been suicide to stare at her naked body. It was too bad. Pinkie was sexy and stacked.
Of course, I thought about it for a second and quickly snapped my fingers. I looked back and was relieved that I had, in fact, hit Pinkie with my magic and not Rarity, since I doubt she would be happy that I changed her look. Of course, Pinkie now had a valley girl look going on. She was wearing a t-shirt that read I heart cupcakes. She also had a frilly pink skirt that went down to her knees. I also put a pair of sunglasses in her hair despite the fact that it was unnecessary. The most impressive feat was that I gave her a pair of high heels and she seemed to be able to balance perfectly in them.
“That’s simply amazing!” Rarity exclaimed. “Why, if I could get you to do that for my dresses, I could cut down on materials and I can take a look at my designs as I finish them! I could have custom orders ready in minutes instead of days! Then my prowess as a fashion designer would spread like wildfire everywhere!”
She then moved so fast that I thought she teleported from across the room and into my face.
“Please be my assistant at my boutique!”
I wasn’t sure about this. It didn’t help that she gave me some puppy dog eyes to boot. I don’t think I’ve ever had anybody give me that look before. It was both cute and pathetic at the same time.
“I’ll think about it okay?”
“Hmph! I’ll have you agree somehow or another. I can be very persuasive.”
“This isn’t the time for this,” interrupted Twilight. “We need to focus on the problem we have now. Namely, we’ve all been turned in humans.”
“For the most part, yes,” I supplemented.
“Never mind that right now. This is your doing correct?”
“Yes, and I’m sorry about it. I got frustrated that you kicked me out and I just did it without thinking.”
“It’s fine. How exactly did you manage to do it? I f we know more about it, then maybe we can reverse it.”
“Well, I got angry about it. Then, magic coalesced in my hand and I followed that by shouting and punching the ground. That’s when everyone changed. I tried undoing it right afterwards, but it wouldn’t work. Instead, I just gave everyone some clothing and used an image of Celestia to calm them all down. It’s working for now, but I’m not sure how long it will last.”
“You said you shouted when you did that. Did you shout anything in particular?”
I got a little uncomfortable with that, but answered anyway.
“I, uh, I yelled out ground pound.”
I saw Rainbow Dash start to snicker. Everyone gave her a glare and she quickly stopped.
“Anyways, from that it sounds like you were still in some control of the spell you used.”
“Yeah, that’s right I suppose. I kind of thought about how you said I would be a distraction and then thought I’d show you a distraction and then thought about a dome encompassing everything when my fist hit the ground. I didn’t really think it through after that.”
“Ah thought ya said it was an accident. That there don’t really sound like an accident.”
“I didn’t actually want any of this to happen! I got frustrated and just acted without thinking about any of the consequences. I’ve been trying to keep things calm and keep everyone from panicking. I also tried undoing it, but it just hasn’t worked.”
“This isn’t the time for that either,” Twilight interrupted again. “What matters now is trying to undo the spell or, if that fails, come up with a counterspell to reverse it.”
“Yes. With SCIENCE!!!”
“What are you-“
I interrupted Twilight’s question by snapping my fingers and changing her wardrobe. Instead of the toga I had given everyone, she was now in a full length labcoat. Underneath, she was sporting a blue shirt and some khaki pants. I also gave her a pair of glasses that were fitting on top of her head. Thanks to her unusual hair, the whole thing screamed mad scientist. Honestly, though, if hair was a normal shade of brown, she would easily give off a girl next door vibe.
“Ah’m startin’ tah think ya’ll are just dressin’ us up for your own amusement.”
“Trust me, if I was doing that you would all be wearing bikinis followed by me getting beat up while shouting totally worth it. Of course, I could always have not given anyone clothes. Would you have liked that better?”
“I would!”
“I’m not counting you in that, Pinkie. I already knew your answer from when I came in.”
“Awwww!!!”
“Can we please stay on track here?” interjected Twilight. “We need to work on this problem!”
“Especially before the Princess arrives,” I added.
“The Princess!?!” everyone yelled.
“Oh yeah," I stated sheepishly, "I forgot to mention that she’s coming personally. I’m worried that she’s going to yell at me and Twilight for this.”
“Why would she be yelling at me for this?”
“Student, teacher relationship. I screwed up and the teacher also takes partial blame. It’s kind of like how if a kid accidentally breaks a window both the kid and their parent apologize even if the parent had nothing to do with it.”
“How do you even know that the Princess is coming? For that matter how does she even know what’s going on?” asked Twilight.
“Oh that,” I started in a sing-song voice, “that is because since she used that scrying spell on me it now comes with the side effect of her being able to talk to me telepathically anytime she wants. Hold on just a second.”
I put my fingers up to my temple.
‘FUCK YOU TROLLESTIA AND YOUR STUPID SCRYING SPELL SIDE-EFFECTS !!!’
“Is it the Princess?” asked Twilight.
“No. I’m just testing to see if I can contact her that way or not. I’ll see whether or-“
‘Doo-dah-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la !’
Wow, that sounded creepy.
“Apparently, I can. Either that or it was good timing.”
‘You really ought to come up with a better name for me, Seth .’
‘Why should I? Trollestia is perfect and you know it. ’
‘I suppose it matters not. I just wanted to tell you that I will be teleporting there in a few moments. Have you gathered the elements there ?’
‘I have even though you didn’t tell me to. ’
‘I knew you would. It was simply a matter of time. ’
‘Terrific. ’
‘On with it. ’
‘Yeah. Yeah. ’
“Celestia’s about to drop in.”
“What!?!” snapped Twilight. “The Princess is almost here? But I haven’t figured out how to fix things! If I haven’t figured out how to fix things then she’s going to be very upset with me! And then-“
“Yeah I think we know,” I interrupted. “No more Celestia’s student. No more Ponyville. Magic kindergarten for you. Trust me; it’s not going to be that bad. For sure not the last two anyway.”
I was unprepared by the fact that Twilight started to tear up.
“Don’t start crying, Twilight! I didn’t mean it! It’s my fault! I’ll take the blame for this!”
I was rambling whatever I thought would work to get her to stop. I was fully ready to do anything I said to get her to not cry. Crying is bad for all those involved. It makes the person crying feel bad, it makes those close to the person feel bad, and it makes the person who did it feel bad whether it’s by guilt or the others making him feel bad with violence. I needed to get her to stop and quickly. The question was how.
Unfortunately, that question was taken out of my hands as Celestia teleported into the library. She took stock of the situation around her. Her eyes finally came to rest on Twilight. Seeing her in this state, she trotted over and placed her foreleg on Twilight’s shoulder.
“Twilight, what troubles you my faithful student?”
“This mess we’re in hasn’t been resolved! Making you come to fix it yourself makes me feel like a failure and if I’m a failure you’ll no longer want me as your student!”
“There, there Twilight. Everypony fails from time to time. There is one lesson to be learned in victory, but a thousand lessons to be learned in defeat.”
“A Sun Tsu quote. Nice,” I said.
“What’s that?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Sun Tsu is a famous tactician. He wrote a book on the subject. I’ve never read it.”
“Besides,” continued Celestia, “there is not a way for you to fix this by yourself in the first place. This was caused by chaos magic. Only the caster of the spell or by using the Elements of Harmony could this be negated. Chaos can only be stopped through harmony.”
“You’re right,” Twilight said; looking a little better. “I can learn from this. If I couldn’t, then I wouldn’t deserve to be your student. Thank you for cheering me up.”
“You are quite welcome, Twilight. Now, we need to deal with the problem at hand.”
Celestia turned and walked over in front of me. She had a neutral expression on her face that made me a little concerned.
“Seth, if you do not find a way to fix this spell with your own magic, then I will require the Elements of Harmony to repair the damage as I told Twilight.”
“I tried to undo the spell. I just can’t seem to figure out how to fix it.”
“You must do this. If you do not find a way without using the Elements, then it will not end well for you.”
Suffice it to say, I did not like the way she worded that. I almost did a cartoony gulp hearing that.
“Uh Princess?” asked Applejack.
“What is it dear Applejack?”
“Beggin yer pardon, but what did ya mean by sayin’ it wouldn’t end well fer him?”
“In order to remove the effects of the spell, the Elements would have to be used on the caster. Therefore, it would end up having the same effect on him as it did Discord.”
I swear I heard a pin drop somewhere.
“But Princess Celestia,” Twilight started sounding almost sad; “Seth doesn’t deserve that fate! He wasn’t doing this intentionally like Discord was! He shouldn’t be treated in the same manner!”
“I am aware of this. However, there is no other way than these two options to repair the damage that has been done. If he does not break the spell soon, it will become permanent. I cannot jeopardize the well-being of the citizens of Ponyville for one human.”
As she looked on at me, there was only one thing I could think of to say.
“Oh, this is just horseshit.”
Author's Note
I honestly didn't want to use Lyra in this story at all. I wanted to steer clear of the whole 'Lyra the human obsession machine' because it just seemed too overplayed. However, the countless upon countless stories with her in them, especially in HiE stories, meant there would be no real way to do this without either doing it and just being another one of the hive or leaving her out and getting flak about how I could possibly have an HiE without a common staple of the world. In the end, I went with inclusion more as a joke than anything else. I was going to make it waaaaay over the top, but in the end I just decided that suspension of disbelief was wavering enough with her being interested in any human. Then again, I needed that for her not to connect the dots that I was the real human when I was the most out of place one there. I guess I'll see how well people take it.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
I kept rubbing the side of my face. No, I hadn’t been slapping myself in an attempt to wake myself up. Applejack, who had heard me swear, promptly slapped me in the face. I almost had expected it not to hurt since stuff hadn’t really been hurting me since I got here. Unfortunately, right then she was very much a human and not subject to the different levels of sturdiness. After a quick scolding and my apology, we quickly returned back to the matter at hand.
For me, that was movie quoting to cope with stress.
“Know this, Twilight Sparkle, if you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”
Her expression quickly changed to one of shock. Too bad Celestia had decided that watching me troll others wasn’t as funny as her trolling me.
“He is merely joking everypony. Do not be concerned. He still, however, has to fix things on his own or else.”
“I know Celestia, but it’s not like I can fix everything just like that,” I said as I snapped my fingers.
As I did, there was a bright light. I shielded my eyes, and when I looked back things had not gotten better. In fact, they got worse.
Celestia was now a human too.
“I said fix everything not make things worse! I said that right!?! I know I did!!!”
“Give her some clothes ya idjit!” answered Applejack.
I looked back and snapped my fingers again. The princess was now in the same toga outfit as everyone else.
“I swear that magic just hates my guts. I can just imagine Discord from inside that statue laughing his butt off at this situation.”
“I very much doubt that to be the case Seth,” rebutted Celestia.
I decided to take a long look at Celestia. She had both her horn and wings from her alicorn form. Her horn was even longer than the others in her human form as well. As for her other features, well let’s just say that she was smoking hot. She had excellent curves in all the right places. Her breasts were almost cartoonishly oversized. There was also the strangeness of her hair. It somehow not only stayed the same color, but it still managed the trick of waving in a nonexistent wind. In all seriousness, she may have been the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
‘You are aware that I can still read your mind correct ?’
‘Oh please. You’re sexy and you know it. Do I really need to come out and say that ?’
‘You do realize where this is now going to lead, do you not ?’
‘I swear on all things holy that you had better not try anything R-rated in front of them. I don’t care how weirdly hot it would be, I guarantee that it will not end well for them .’
‘How quickly you went for that optimistic viewpoint. Even I have standards .’
‘…I hate you so much right now that I feel like punching you in front of them and not caring about the consequences. You crushed my false hope so quickly that I think I picked up whiplash. My spirit can only take so much abuse you know ? At this rate, a feather would be enough to finish crushing it. ’
‘And yet you still ramble. Perhaps you are not as crushed in spirit as you may think. What say you of Twilight’s hypothesis ?’
‘Wait, what hypothesis ?’
‘You have not been paying attention to me alone have you ?’
‘You mean they’ve been talking ?’
‘How droll. You seem to be thinking to me without paying attention to them. I believe that this will make my point. ’
‘You believe what -‘
I winced as I received a hand to the back of my head. Rainbow Dash continued on by shaking me a little at the shoulder.
“Are you even listening to us? Stop starting at the Princess and ignoring us!”
“I-was-tal-king-to-her-the-whole-time-Dash,” I said as she shook me.
“No you weren’t!” she exclaimed as she stopped shaking me. “You were just staring at her the whole time while Twilight was talking!”
“I was doing it telepathically. Not out loud.”
“That’s not very nice to leave us out of the conversation. I would like to know what the Princess thinks of my hypothesis.”
“I believe that it was sound, Twilight Sparkle. It seems that our new friend can only listen to one conversation at a time. He did not hear it, but I did. It makes sense.”
“You started that conversation, not me Princess. It’s not my fault that my brain can’t shut you out anymore.”
“You shouldn’t be thinking things like that in the first place.”
“I have the right to think however I feel like thinking.”
“Oh really?” Celestia asked as she walked up to me.
“Well then, what do you think of this?”
She then got into my face and wrapped her arms around my neck in a way that was quite intimate. Her face was literally inches away from my own. Her body was literally pressed up against mine. I couldn’t quite see it, but I could feel the horn on her head bumping into the top of mine.
I put my arms out a bit to the sides not knowing what I ought to do in this situation. I knew she was getting some kicks in right now. The whole standards thing she said was still fresh in my mind. I wasn’t sure what her goal in doing this right now was. However, I don’t really think it mattered. She was reading my mind as I thought this and that basically meant she could be one step ahead at any time she wished. The only possible method to outdo her would be to not think ahead of time and just start doing things regardless of the consequences. I think I’ve already demonstrated how bad that can go.
“Perhaps a few customs for humans would be more entertaining discoveries for Twilight,” she whispered into my ear. “What do you think?”
‘Celestia, if I didn’t know for a fact that you were trolling me right now, the only things stopping me from going for it would be the others in the room and the thought of what if the transformation drops while doing it. Despite the fact that I love hugs, I want you to stop right now. ’
‘But if I stopped, then my plan would fail. ’
“Enough Celestia! What are you doing? This isn’t like you at all! It’s almost creepy!”
“Hey! Don’t talk to the Princess like that!” yelled Rainbow Dash.
“Then tell her to stop! There is no way that this is how she normally acts! It’s almost like…she’s…”
“She’s what?” asked Twilight.
I almost saw a lightbulb go off over my head. Without thinking, I reared my head back and gave Celestia a headbutt. She instantly let go and staggered back a little. Everyone was in shock at seeing what I had done. I quickly pointed my hand at Celestia and snapped my fingers.
Nothing happened.
“I knew it!!!”
“What the hay is going on!?!” asked Rainbow Dash.
“What the hell did you do with Celestia, Discord!?!”
“DISCORD!?!?!” everyone yelled.
“You really are smarter than I would have given you credit for,” said Celestia in a voice that was definitely not hers.
“Don’t change the subject!” yelled Twilight. “What did you do with the Princess?”
“Always with the Princess. She’s not the important one here. He is,” he said as he pointed to me.
“The thing from last night. That wasn’t the Princess was it?”
“No it wasn’t my dear boy. It was me.”
There was a snap of his fingers and before us stood the very thing that had appeared in my room not too long ago.
“Discord, Bringer of Chaos!”
“Why the deception?” I asked. “I thought you were going to have me and the elements show up in Canterlot in a couple of days to seal you up. I can honestly imaging you doing this and faking waking up only to watch them fail after handing them fake element items.”
“Bra-vo! You are smarter than I give you credit for. In my defense, I really shouldn’t have pressed you so hard while as a human Celestia. I thought for sure you would have gone along with that. I would’ve done things to you that would’ve really made you unhinged.”
I almost had the urge to vomit.
“So,” continued Discord, “I am quite intrigued by you, Seth. I haven’t seen a human in ages.”
“What about when you showed up in my room not too long ago?”
“Ah yes, I am quite intrigued by that as well. I couldn’t use the same spell that Celestia used on you. I could only see what went on in the throne room from her perspective. It was quite hilarious to see her lose her composure like she did. What is in that curious little mind of yours that could do that to her I wonder?”
“I’m not about to let you know that, Discord. I trusted her with that information. You, not so much.”
“Oh, but why not? From what I gather, I’m the one who gave you your magic. You should be more appreciative.”
“Oh I never said I didn’t appreciate it. Then again, look at the mess that’s going on right now. You must be quite impressed with the chaos that’s been unleashed.”
“Indeed I am, although I do wish you hadn’t calmed everypony down. Watching their reactions was quite fun to me.”
“I’m sure it was. So, when did you wiggle your way free of the statue?”
“Perhaps you care to take a guess?”
“It had to have happened after his visit to the castle,” Twilight interrupted. “You said you couldn’t use the spell the Princess used so you had to have escaped after that. However, the mental connection afterwards that Seth is talking about was you all along so it had to have been between those two times.”
“Oh so close Twilight Not-So-Sparkling. I actually freed myself just after he arrived at the castle. His proximity to me increased the rate of decay of the spell. If he hadn’t been whisked to the castle, then I would have escaped around the time I had told him.”
“So basically, it was you the whole time whispering in my head. I don’t understand that. I know you said a few things that you shouldn’t know about. Like that Skywalker thing, for example.”
“I don’t really understand what that meant either. Celestia said it as I imprisoned her.”
“You imprisoned the Princess!?!” yelled Twilight.
“Both of them actually. Celestia was having a chat with Luna when I arrived. Caught off guard as they were, they still gave me quite the workout to help with those kinks you get when you come out of stone sleep. They’re now trapped in their own dungeon along with all of the royal guard.”
“Wait, all of them?” asked Twilight, “What about my brother?”
“Your brother? Why Twilight, I didn’t know you had a brother! If I had known that I would have been more careful when I sent them all there. What is his name?”
“Shining Armor.”
“Ah! That’s who they were talking about. Some of the guards had mentioned him not being there. Too bad. Maybe I can bring him here and have him join in the fun.”
“You won’t,” I declared.
“Oh really,” he said as he sneered at me, “and why exactly will I not do that?”
I pointed straight at him.
“You and me. Chaos mage duel. I bet that in and of its self will be quite entertaining.”
“You think it will, but your magic was given to you by me which means that you can’t have as much as I do. You will lose.”
“Then what’s the harm? Chaos flying around like crazy sounds like something you would love.”
Discord put his claw to his chin in thought.
“It does sound intriguing. Alright, I will-“
“Before you agree, I want you to swear that you will leave my thoughts alone and that you will bring your prisoners to watch. If you know what I’m thinking then it won’t be very fun and it will be too easy for you. I want you to bring the guards and the Princesses so that you will have a nice audience for your antics. Does this sound acceptable?”
“You are a real treat! Neither the Princesses nor anypony else would ever indulge me like this. You have yourself a deal.”
He stuck his claw out for me to shake. As I shook it there was a shock as he hit me with a hand buzzer. I pulled back my hand as quick as I could.
“Not cool man! Not cool!”
“Oh, just as I thought you weren’t that bad you go and say that.”
“Yeah, whatever. How about we meet in the plains of Appleloosa at noon tomorrow?”
“Sounds like a plan! I’ll see you all then!”
He then vanished in a flash.
“Are you insane!?!” yelled Twilight.
“No human is completely sane. It doesn’t matter. Discord has the upper hand in this. He has the Princesses and the Royal Guard imprisoned and he’s most likely moved the Elements of Harmony from wherever they had been stored. He is way too cunning and he won’t underestimate you after last time. The only way to beat him is to try and beat him.”
“What about the coin?”
“What?”
“What about that coin?” repeated Pinkie Pie.
“She has a point, Seth,” parroted Twilight. “The other Discord from your room seems to be a different entity. The one who came here doesn’t seem to know anything about what happened there. That one is who gave you this coin.”
She held out the coin which, well it seemed to come out of nowhere. What is up with that?
“This coin is definitely important to what’s going on here. It was given to you by Discord and it reacts to us whenever we come into contact with it initially. It may just be the way to defeat Discord.”
“You have a point, Twilight. Though, only four of the elements have touched that coin so far. We won’t know anything until the other two have touched it. I say we use it more as a last resort though. Our ace in the hole, as they say.”
“I’ll agree with that. Why don’t we let Applejack and Fluttershy touch the coin and then after that we’ll discuss a strategy for when we arrive at Appleloosa.”
“Sounds good Twi!”
“A-are you sure it’s safe? You know, to t-touch the coin.”
“I’m sure if it was dangerous, something would’ve already happened to us,” explained Twilight. “We need to do this. It’s for the Princess’s sake. Okay Fluttershy?”
“Okay,” she said barely above a whisper.
Both Applejack and Fluttershy went over to Twilight. Twilight held out her hand; waiting for them to touch the coin.
“Remember to shield your eyes for this one,” she reminded everyone.
“Right,” we all said almost in unison.
I shielded my eyes waiting for the flash to come.
“Twilight!!! Are you here!?!”
The yell surprised me as Spike came running into the library. Everyone’s attention went straight to him.
“Twilight! Everypony’s turned into a… Not you too!” he shouted as he realized the situation.
“Calm down Spike. We already know. We have more important problems right now. Discord is free again.”
“Oh no!!! What are we going to do? It took everything we had to seal him up last time!”
“We have a plan,” she said cutting him off. "We’re in the middle of it right now.”
“We are? Phew. That’s a relief!”
“Oh, I almost forgot!” yelled Pinkie Pie.
“What? What did you almost forget?” asked Twilight.
“I have to throw a party for when we get back! A ‘we beat Discord again’ party!”
I groaned. I wasn’t alone.
“Pinkie, we are in the middle of something important!” yelled Rainbow Dash. “You can plan that party when we get done with this!”
“Okie dokie lokie,” she said tentatively.
“Let’s get back to the coin,” I said.
“Agreed,” said Twilight. “Let’s do this.”
Both Applejack and Fluttershy nodded and reached out for the coin. As they touched it, I realized something important.
I forgot to shield my eyes.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
The train that was my transportation pulled into the station in Appleloosa on schedule. We had made the trip there without incident, which I was grateful for. I was half expecting those weird little cotton candy clouds at some point. Then again, that was a one-off in the show that everyone just thought was S.O.P. for Discord. If he did that again, I honestly expect them to be made out of marshmallows and rain hot sauce instead.
Unfortunately, being the size that I am, there was no way for me to get on the train without being a bother to the passengers and staff. As such, I ended up riding on the balcony part of the caboose for the duration of the trip. Of course, because of the inconvenience I hadn’t been charged for riding the train. It was a small compensation that worked out for me since I don’t have any bits to pay for anything. I don’t want to make any currency while I’m here and throw the economy out of whack. Besides, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a close up of the bits that they use to do that anyway.
Despite the fact that I was stuck on the back of the train, I still had spent the time with the girls. Well, I say girls, but by the end of the day yesterday, we had finally managed to remove the spell I had made on them. Too bad it only worked on one pony at a time. The bittersweet moment of the whole thing was that I ended up having to place my hand above their heart in order to make it work.
No, we tried doing it over their heart on their back and it didn’t work. Suffice it to say that the little revelation did not go over well with everyone. Pinkie Pie and Twilight didn’t really care. Fluttershy was apprehensive, but surprisingly got over it quickly. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity took it in a less than happy tone. After some long negotiations, there were some agreements and some punishments that were agreed upon to let it commence.
Applejack was the easiest to agree to. I was to help out at Sweet Apple Acres for a week to make up for lost time with the mess I made. Rarity was harder. The problem was that I was violating her modesty. As punishment for doing this, she was allowed to actually slap my face silly until she felt better. She went for about a minute and a half before she relented. Rainbow Dash was, unfortunately, the hardest to persuade. For some reason, she would not relent to any demands we could come up with. She finally caved when she came up with an idea of her own and asked her demand of me privately. It was something very personal and the two of us went into another room for me to deliver on it. To this day, I will not say what happened without being very drunk or tortured horribly. I still cry about it sometimes when I’m alone.
The magic itself worked like a charm. It took quite a bit of magic to perform and I ended up using the magic boosting ability I had used on Pinkie, but instead used it on Twilight. It took over half an hour to perform on each of them and by the end Twilight and I were actually both exhausted. Adding in my newfound endurance made it all the more surprising when after the fourth try I was starting to breathe harder. All in all, the spell worked and we each went back to our respective homes for some rest before the showdown.
Except, of course, for me. I still had no actual home to go to, being dimensionally displaced and all. Considering how tired I was, I still managed a spell to elongate the couch where I was making my temporary quarters. I didn’t really need anything else other than leg room so I was fine with that. At least I was until I realized that there was no pillow. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers despite the fact that I probably could have conjured one. All in all, it was just bothersome.
What I was truly surprised about was that there was no one around to greet us at the station. I remember Applejack had some family in Appleloosa and I would have thought for certain that they would have greeted us when we got here. Perhaps Applejack didn’t have enough time to let them know we were coming. All the better anyway. From what the girls tell me, we have about forty minutes until the duel and we needed to get there soon anyway.
The trip out of town was pretty somber, especially considering the fact that Pinkie Pie was in the group. She was still hopping the entire way there, but for some reason there was no conversation or off kilter banter or anything the entire way. It was almost like I was in a funeral march. I needed to break up the mood somehow.
I quickly scooped up Pinkie in mid-hop and whispered to her my little plan. After a quick nod, I placed her on my shoulders. Pinkie then, following my instructions, started to fire her Pinkie cannon off into the distance.
“What in the wide world of Equestria are the two of ya doin’?” asked Applejack.
“If we’re right on target, you’ll see when we get there,” I replied.
“Why can’t you tell us now?” asked Rainbow Dash; flying in my way to try and get her point across.
“Don’t wanna,” I said and smirked.
“Hey! That’s not fair!” yelled Rainbow Dash.
“Heh. Where I’m from, life is rarely fair. It’s usually tedious and boring and people complain when they shouldn’t. Life is just a series of events that happen one after the other forever. You only get to see the events that happen in front of you, but so much more happens than just that. It’s the background that makes up the universe, or multiverse I suppose. In the background is where most of the action happens. All of the good and all of the bad happen where you almost never are. Although, you six are more of a cosmic balance to the really bad stuff that happens here. Despite that, your daily lives make up for all the bad you see.”
“You’re a bit of idealist at heart, aren’t you?” said Twilight. “Our days aren’t always peaceful you know.”
“Maybe so, but the majority of your lives are filled with happiness and good times. For humans, it may be like that, but we complain about it sometimes anyway. For me, in particular, the number one enemy to my happiness is boredom. I can get bored very easily. It’s probably because of my ADD, but I still don’t do anything about it.”
“I hear ya,” said Rainbow Dash. “Math can make me pretty bored too. I don’t blame ya for that.”
“Math? What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Well, you said adding makes you bored. That’s a math thing.”
I chuckled a little.
“What’s so funny?”
“That isn’t what I meant. Humans can have a lot of different types of medical problems. There are immune disorders where a body tries to heal itself even though nothing is wrong with it. Humans can develop cancer which is a mutated growth that slowly takes over their bodies. Then, there are mental disorders which can alter ones perceptions or even make the rest of the body react in ways they shouldn’t. I have two from the last category.
“ADD is an acronym for attention deficit disorder. Basically, it’s someone who has a short attention span, is disorganized, procrastinates often, is easily distracted, and possibly forgetful. Pinkie Pie here is almost a textbook case. In addition to that, I have another one called Asperger’s syndrome. That one makes me a bit awkward in social situations, and it makes me a bit obsessive towards a set comfortable routine.”
“So,” Twilight began, “what you’re saying is that humans have progressed so far into medicine that you’ve started finding little things that are wrong with you now?”
“Well, when you have devices that can look at the individual components of blood, you can really delve into a variety of different aspects of how they work and why the body reacts to things the way it does. Like dehydration for example. The human body is composed of seventy percent water. Water, of course, is necessary for all different types of things in the body. It helps regulate body temperature. It helps keep blood flowing. Et cetera.”
“Ya know, I noticed that ya don’t seem tah drink much water at all,” said Applejack.
“That’s because I can’t stand water. It tastes awful.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Rainbow Dash. “It’s water. It doesn’t have any taste to it at all!”
“That’s what everyone keeps telling me!” I said as I threw my hands into the air. “Yet somehow, it manages to taste bad whenever I drink it. About the only time it doesn’t taste bad to me is when it’s so cold that it’s almost frozen. Even then, it’s still iffy to me.”
“I know what you mean darling. There have been many a time in which I find the water in Ponyville to be lacking a certain quality to it. The water in Canterlot is quite divine if I do say so. I can certainly see why you would say such a thing,” said Rarity; finishing with an overdramatic pose.
“I really hope I didn’t just start the bottled water craze in Equestria,” I said with a sigh.
“Bottled water?” asked Rarity. “That sounds odd.”
I didn’t want her to think about it anymore. Therefore I used all my wit in order to change the subject.
“Look,” I said pointing ahead, “a distraction!”
Several of them looked forward while Pinkie chuckled and Twilight facehoofed.
“Seriously?” asked Twilight.
She looked back at me and I continued to point forward. She then turned back around and kept moving along with everyone else. A few minutes later and we arrived at the location I had Pinkie fire her cannon at.
“Ah picnic?” asked Applejack. “Are ya sure yer all there up in yer noggin?”
I shrugged.
“I know I don’t want to fight on an empty stomach.”
“We didn’t eat that long ago partner.”
I looked at my watch. I was surprised at how little I actually stared at it the last few days.
“According to my watch, it is almost lunch time anyway. Lunch would be at noon and it’s less than half an hour until then.”
“Are yah really that interested in lunch?”
“It’ll give me time to think about if I want to change anything strategy-wise I suppose,” I said lamely.
“Uh-huh,” said Applejack, obviously hearing the intent in my words.
“Hey! We’re here!” yelled Pinkie Pie.
We looked forward and the picnic items were all collected and sorted out in front of us. A few baskets and plates were all set up on top of a large blanket. Since it was the fold up type of basket, I couldn’t see what was in them, but I really hope that there was something I could eat. Of course, since it was Pinkie Pie and she wouldn’t be a bad host of anything I had faith that there would be something edible for me in there.
Too bad I never found out. I say that because as soon as we got close to the spot, Discord appeared in a flash along with his prisoners. They were all trapped in two cages standing off to the side of Discord. They were large steel cages with bars on every side as well as the roof. The floor, however, was strangely a faux wood paneling. One held the two princesses and the other held an assortment of guards.
“Princesses!!!” everyone around me yelled.
Both Celestia and Luna turned towards the source of the yelling. They both smiled as they saw everyone but me running towards the cage that held the princesses. I walked over at a more sedate pace while keeping my eye on Discord. He wouldn’t let them out of their cages, but I didn’t see any openings to let them out anyway. I’d have to ask about that later.
“It’s good to see you all unharmed my little ponies,” she said as they arrived in front of the cage. She gave me a look as she said that. I also heard Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie snicker at that as well. I guess the joke wasn’t lost on them despite the tension in the air.
While everyone else was talking with the princesses, I went over to check on the guards. Just because the princesses were there doesn’t mean that the guards weren’t invisible.
“You guys are all unhurt, right? You haven’t been mistreated in any way?”
“No we haven’t,” said an armored unicorn. “Are the princesses alright?”
“I believe so. The Elements are talking to them now. I was more concerned about you all. This can’t be good for your self-esteem.”
I regretted what I said a bit when I saw them hang their heads from what I said.
“Hey, don’t worry about it. It was Discord. The princesses themselves couldn’t handle something like that.”
They looked a little bit better after hearing that.
“Don’t any of you worry about it. I’ll have them free soon enough.”
Having said that, I walked over to the cell holding the princesses. They were still chatting with the girls, as I expected.
“How are the guards doing?” asked Luna.
“They’re doing alright considering the state of things. I’m sure you can understand.”
“We understand. However, they should not feel this way.”
“I feel bad for them. They failed to keep you safe. Despite who it was that did this, it is their responsibility to make sure this doesn’t happen.”
“Discord is more powerful than any of us,” commented Celestia. “They should not be so hard on themselves.”
“Saying it is one thing. Believing it…” I trailed off letting the comment hang in the air. “Anyway, Luna, we haven’t been properly introduced. I am Seth, the Earthling.”
I finished by extending my hand towards her. As I was about to put my hand in between the bars, I hit an invisible barrier which stopped my progress.
“My apologies for not informing you of the barrier sooner. I am Princess Luna, the Princess of the Night,” she finished in a louder voice, but not with her Royal Canterlot Voice.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“You did not say that when I had appeared in front of you,” Celestia said almost mopingly.
“You showed up in the middle of the night while I was trying to sleep and you read my mind at the same time. I didn’t exactly think about it as you well know. Can your sister use that trick by the way?”
“She knows that ability as well. She does not like to use it just as I do not. It was necessary at the time, however, since I did not know of your intentions. I trust my subjects implicitly. Outsiders are a different matter altogether.”
“I suppose that’s fair. Anyway, has Discord informed you of what is going on here?”
Both Celestia and Luna gave me a glare that I swear was a precursor to Fluttershy’s. It didn’t have that paralytic quality that Fluttershy’s had. It was more of a stare that your parents had when you did something very wrong and were about to punish you.
“Neither of us believes that this chaos duel is a good idea,” said Celestia in a tone that could easily tell me what she thought of my plan.
“But Princess-“ started Twilight.
“I got this Twilight,” I interrupted; my gaze never leaving Celestia’s. “I know you don’t like this. Using chaos to combat chaos doesn’t sound like a good plan. However, I doubt that Discord would give us another chance to seal him with the Elements of Harmony after the last time. He came to us in Ponyville and without the Elements on hand I doubt we could have done anything to him in that situation. He’s a bit aloof, but I think he might have learned not to underestimate the girls when they have the Elements with them. If I hadn’t intervened, I believe that he would have tried something to make sure that they wouldn’t be able to. I have faith in this. You should have faith as well.”
Luna’s gaze didn’t falter any from my words, but Celestia’s gaze did. She didn’t say anything, but I could see that she was thinking about what I had said. I knew my little plan would work. I had no reason to think otherwise. The girls had enough faith in me to let me do this. I hoped that the princess would as well.
Celestia’s glare ended and she let out a large sigh.
“Very well, Seth. Since we do not have any other options at this point I will have faith in your plan; whatever it may be.”
Luna looked like she was about to object, but a look from Celestia and her retort died in her throat.
“Well, I think that I’ve given you lot quite enough time to catch up,” Discord said; interrupting us. “It may be a bit early, but I think we should get this little duel underway.”
I turned back to Discord who, strangely enough, looked like he was crying. It took me a second to understand.
“Let me guess. Tears of boredom, right?”
“Smart boy. Will you please help me dry these tears?”
I shrugged and walked away from the cells towards Discord.
“I would, but I don’t really have anything on me to do so. Plus, I’m not about to lend you my shirt. You’ll probably blow your nose in it and then I definitely wouldn’t want it back.”
I thought about it for a second, and a thought came to mind.
“Actually, I think I would be ok with that.”
As I came within arm’s length of Discord, I pulled off my shirt and handed it to Discord. Underneath my shirt, the coin that the first Discord from my room gave me was now hanging around my neck from a small chain that the girls gave me. I then gave my shirt over to Discord. He took it from my hand and dried the tears from his face. He then promptly blew his nose into it and tossed it back to me. Thankfully, I caught it on a part he didn’t use.
“I suppose you were right. That was a bit predictable for me. Then again, I want to save myself for our little showdown.”
He then snapped his fingers and teleported himself a few hundred feet away from where I was standing.
“So then, shall we get started?”
“I’d like to set up a few things before we get started if you don’t mind, Discord.”
I snapped my fingers and I switched into some new clothing. I was now wearing an orange gi with a blue undershirt. A little part of me thought that it was a bit tacky to be wearing that since I was in no way a good fighter, but I’ve wanted to wear that for a long time. Now would probably be the only time I would get a chance to do so.
“A training gi?” asked Rainbow Dash.
I knew she would know what it was. She actually has martial arts training.
“Yeah, it’s a training gi. It’s the same one that Goku wears almost all the time. He is a great martial artist and a true hero. I was thinking about wearing a blue jacket with a black undershirt and some spandex pants with a contraption on my arm, but I would look terrible in them and nobody would get the reference. I also want to do this.”
I snapped my fingers again and a ways away from where we were standing a stage materialized in a flash. On the stage was a group of ten identical clones of me wearing the same thing. Sitting next to them was a full set of instruments.
“I figured some music would be nice for our little duel. Don’t you think so Discord?”
Discord chuckled a little.
“That sounds lovely.”
I chuckled back.
“Prepare to be disappointed. In more ways than one.”
Author's Note
Playoff mode has ended in disappointment so I'm back into the writing. Next chapter: the duel! FYI, I'm not sure if I want to make this duel one long chapter or not. If I do, I'm going to end it at a specific point with a specific line.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
Seriously? No, Seriously?
As my vision was returning, I noticed that everyone was giggling at something.
“You didn’t cover your eyes, did you Seth ?” said Twilight.
“I forgot with the distractions. Sue me. ”
“It’s alright. Here you go. ”
Thankfully, my vision was back to normal to see what she was talking about. She had her hand extended towards me with the coin inside it. A little smile was accompanying her gesture. I smiled back to her as I reached for it.
“Thanks Twilight. ”
As I grabbed the coin from her hand, it started to glow again. Everyone took a step back as the coin levitated out of my hand and into the air on its own. I backed up a bit as well not knowing what might happen. After all, this was Discord’s coin. For all I knew it was about to send us to the other side of the world or turn us into some kind of Lovecraftian horrors.
What we got instead was a projection of Discord where the coin was.
“Hello once again everyone! It’s great to see everyone once more even if I can’t actually see you. Just so no one interrupts I should let you all know that this is a recording I placed into the coin. It was set to activate once the essence of all six Elements of Harmony had been added to the coin and then once the coin was touched by the little human here. You could talk or react all you want, but I wouldn’t if I were you. You might miss something important that I have to say.
“Now how long has it been since this day ? I’m not even sure anymore. It’s been well over a thousand years to be certain. I’ve had a great deal of time to myself to think about this time in my life. The day of the magic duel was quite the intriguing day to say the least. It set this entire series of events into motion.
“One thing at a time, though. First off, you should know about how you came to be just what you are right now. In truth, I gave you about half of my substantial power for you to use while you are in Equestria. It’s slightly less than half so that if I need it back, it will return to me and we don’t end up having a tug-of-war over chaos energy. We don’t need that can of worms opened up.
“The reason I gave you that much of my power was so that I could whip you into shape. We both know that you aren’t exactly in the best of shape. A bit of the magic was to fortify you. You may have been a human, but you’re not a human from Equestria. You would have still had the same stamina, strength, and durability you had on Earth. However, that would make you a gibbering weakling for our meeting. How much fun would I have had if you had been tuckered out after fifteen minutes of running around ? Of course, we both know I’m being generous with that amount of time.
“The reason I didn’t change anything else about you was to retain a bit of normalcy that you needed to keep your sanity. It may have been strained, but I didn’t want it to break. Your brain wouldn’t be able to handle any extra speed. Your ego would have burst if I changed your physical appearance. Although I will say that I did give you a bit of a boost when it came to your memory. It will come and go, but it can give you much better clarity for certain events when it does work.
“As long as you are there, my magic will continue to support you in this way. It is not an endless supply, however. It can deteriorate over time. However, it can be recharged through acts of chaos. Since I know that this recording will appear sometime between our meeting on Equestria and our duel, I can tell you that it will not be a problem. Your chaos magic will have been recharged quite well thanks to your little stunt in Ponyville. Just do not overuse it before then and you will be fine.
“Now, as for the coin itself, it has a great many uses. It can be used for more than just recordings like this. Thanks to the essences of the Elements of Harmony, the coin can now boost your magic even greater than it would on its own. Chaos and harmony are two sides of the same coin after all. ”
I let out a groan and facepalmed.
“Chaos and harmony are vastly different, but together they can create synergy. So many people see them as separate entities, but they complement each other in many ways. The balance between the two is what is truly difficult. That is why I find your world so fascinating! It has a perfect balance of chaos and harmony. Not only that, but the sheer amounts of both are glorious! I was originally hesitant about being anywhere near humans. I was quite mistaken. Ever since I arrived here I have had to do nothing at all to recharge my powers. I can do nearly anything I want without having to worry about my limits.
“That, my dear boy, is where you come in. Due to my own hubris, I will end up sending myself and everyone else in your group to a different world. The coin will act as a beacon to retrieve them from wherever they may have gone. Once they are retrieved, the coin will return you back to Equestria with them. Just make sure that everyone is touching the coin at the same time when returning or else it will not work. Be careful with that coin or else no one will return safely at all. You won’t have to worry about me, though. I can find my own way back.
“Well, I suppose that’s everything that I can think of. Don’t worry little ponies. I don’t plan to return for a long time. Besides, I think that my time on Earth has mellowed out my demeanor. Everything will happen as it was meant to be. That, I can assure you, is the honest truth. ”
With the last of his words spoken, Discord’s image disappeared and the coin fell to the floor with an echoing clatter. No one spoke for what seemed like an eternity.
“Oh terrific ,” I said breaking the silence, “it’s a causality loop. ”
“What the hay is a causality loop ?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I already have a good example in mind. Twilight, do you remember the day when your future self appeared in the library with you ?”
“Yeah! I couldn’t believe it. ”
“Quite so. Basically, she appeared in front of you and since you couldn’t believe it you kept asking yourself a bunch of questions and by the time she was going to tell you what she came for, she disappeared leaving you to wonder about what had happened to make her come back in the first place looking as she did. As it turned out, worrying about what was going to happen is what led you to have that appearance. Then when you used the time travel spell to tell yourself not to worry you inadvertently created the very problem that you went to prevent. You ended up causing the very event that you wanted to prevent. ”
“Then, does that mean it was destined to happen ?” asked Twilight.
“In a word: yes. Other than minor, insignificant alterations that might happen, this duel will go just as it was supposed to. Meaning that whatever happened to him, will happen again for us. It looked like it worked out for us and him so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. ”
“But what if he’s lyin’ tah us ? It could just be ah trap he set up. ”
“Discord’s greatest weakness is his overconfidence. He wouldn’t have the forethought of doing this if he believed that his victory was a sure thing. Besides, he showed up at my place before any of this started. He couldn’t have done that if he was still encased in stone at the time. ”
“Ah suppose yer right. ”
“Good. Now, let’s see if I can use this coin to try and boost the power we need to get everyone back to normal. Let’s just hope nothing goes wrong or that it’s nothing embarrassing that any of us have to do. ”
I shook my head to clear out the remaining feelings of the princesses spells. Both of them working together on the scrying spell definitely made it go so much more smoothly.
"I do not understand," started Princess Luna. "The chances of all the spells acting perfectly to accommodate this happening is immense. It simply should not have happened."
"Yet it did dear sister. It did indeed happen. Not only that, but the circle is incomplete. He must still return them here safely and close the rifts that have appeared."
"Before we do that, I want to do something before I lose my nerve," I said.
I walked up in front of Luna and scooped her up into a tight hug.
"What is thou doing?" she asked.
"I just wanted you to know that I appreciate what you do. I spend most of my waking hours at night. I want you to know that no matter what, there is someone who appreciates it. Don't ever think otherwise."
"It is... flattering that you say this, but I have come to terms with what I have done long ago."
"While that may be true, it doesn't hurt that someone helps with it, right?"
"I... suppose that perhaps it does. Could'st thou put me down now?"
I complied and placed her back onto the ground. She tried to hide it, but I saw that her face had a little blush on it. I ended up reaching out and ruffling the mane on the top of her head a little.
"What art thou doing?" she asked with a hint of ire.
"It's a gesture of everything is cool now," I replied.
"What does the temperature have to do with anything right now?"
I facepalmed.
"I'll ask that Celestia explains that to you later. Right now, I have to focus on the rifts."
I pulled the coin out from my shirt and looked at it closely. The symbols on the coin were glowing. Each one was glowing a different shade that corresponded to the color of their coat. I pulled the chain over my head and held out the coin from me. The symbols glowed slightly brighter when they came closer to the rifts.
"I think it's a locator spell built into the coin. The closer I get to them, the brighter the symbols get."
"A good assumption," Celestia said.
"I suppose, but I should be careful. The more assumptions I make, the better the chance I have to-"
"Please, Seth, watch your language," interrupted Celestia.
"Sorry about that."
I walked closer to one of the rifts while holding out the coin. As I got closer to the rift, all but one of the symbols started to dim slightly. The one that didn't dim was Applejack's symbol.
"It looks like the coin can tell me which of them is in which rift. That will help me out quite a bit. It should tell me which of them to look for when I go through the rift."
I carefully put the coin back around my neck and prepared to step through the rift.
"Halt," said Luna. "We should accompany thou into these rifts."
"I'm afraid that you can't," I replied.
"What? Why shouldn't we accompany thou in your quest?"
"Is it not obvious dear sister? We cannot go because there will be too many of us to return here if we go through. Remember, we have to be touching the coin when we return. I suspect at the most, only three of us could touch the coin at one time. Even then, it might come out of our grasp and we could be stranded wherever we go. I am afraid that he must undertake this journey alone."
"Don't sweat it Tia! I'll get them back."
"Tia?" asked Luna.
I looked at her blankly.
"You've never called her that before?" I asked dryly.
"It isn't entirely proper for me to do so."
I facepalmed again.
"I don't think she would mind at all if you called her that, right?"
"Not at all," she responded with a warm smile on her face. "Perhaps I should start to call you Lulu."
"Why wouldst thou wish to call me that?"
"No reason in particular. We are sisters are we not?"
"Tis true," she said with apprehension.
"Oh right! The rifts!" I said; remembering what I was supposed to be doing.
"Indeed," said Luna. "This is not the time for such talk. Make haste to save them!"
"I will," I replied.
I looked forward into the rift that Applejack was supposed to be in. I slowly reached out and touched the rift. There was a blinding light for a few seconds and suddenly it was gone. I blinked away the lights in my eyes and looked around. I had no idea where I was.
Well, I knew I was in an alleyway. I guess that was a start. It wasn't very clean either. It was nighttime wherever I was. The alleyway was wide enough to let the light come down from the buildings that were lit up in the distance. It didn't provide all that much in the way of illumination, however, so I was forced to squint to see in the darkness.
"Moshimoshi? Soko ni darekaga arimasu ka?"
Ah crap. I think that was Japanese. The moshi part helped me know. I had no idea where the voice came from, but it was not a language that I knew well enough to speak. Though I did know one phrase to help me in this situation.
"Ummm, ei goga wakarimas ka?"
A simple 'do you speak english' question. It was almost all I knew despite the fact that I watched subbed anime a lot.
"Yeah, I do," a voice answered behind me.
I tuned around to see who it was. I was met by a trio of men. The three of them seemed to come out of nowhere. Their features were definitely Asian. Their clothes looked a bit ragged though.
"That's a silly question to ask. Aren't you capable of translating that with your cyberbrain?"
Cyberbrain? What were they talking about? Maybe wherever I am had that kind of thing in abundance. It would make-
Wait. Cyberbrain. I only knew of one thing that used the term cyberbrain so easily.
Ghost In The Shell. Oh this was going to be a really messed up rescue mission wasn't it?
Author's Note
I just realized that even though I'm putting a pony in another world, that's still technically a crossover. Therefore, I had to add a crossover tag to the story. It won't really change what I was going to do though.
EDIT: After thinking about this a bit from Sandcroft's idea, I think I will split this part off into a new story. Same issue with time, however since the crossover is in a different story I'll get rid of that crossover tag.
DOUBLE EDIT: The new story is here!
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
I swallowed hard.
“You want me to apologize.”
“Yes, I want you to apologize to the residents of Ponyville for what you did.”
“Do you mean the explosion, the earthquake, or the subsequent panic from my magic blast?”
“How about all three?”
“Pretty much what I expected. You know I’m not good with crowds right?”
“Come on. You’ll be fine.”
“When I was in a spelling bee once, I misspelled the word chair because I was so nervous.”
Spike chuckled at that. I threw a glare at him that made him back up behind Twilight.
“I know that I need to apologize to the townsfolk, but I honestly don’t think I could stutter out an apology when facing down that many ponies at once. I’m honestly not sure if I could do that in front of ten ponies.”
“We’ll be right there with you if you have any trouble. You need to do this.”
“Can I offer a written apology for everyone to read?”
“Listen, would ya rather I hogtied ya up and dragged ya up on that there stage?”
I paused quickly to think about that.
“Honestly, it may be the only way to get me up there without having an episode. Though, the fact that I’ll be tied up will really make everyone stare.”
I shuddered quite visibly.
“That does not sound any better. Fine. Let’s get this over with.”
I cleared a path through the fallen books and went to exit the library. A thought occurred to me as I pulled the door open.
“Hey Twilight, did you teleport me back here? I doubt that you could carry me.”
“No, I levitated you back here with my magic.”
I froze before I went out.
“You basically carried me through the town, unconscious, and in front of who knows how many ponies. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“I had Pinkie Pie help me get you through the door, but yes the rest of it is right.”
Slightly aggravated, I covered my eyes with my hand.
“Let me ask you all a question. How comfortable do you think Fluttershy would be speaking to that many ponies?”
“Probably about as comfortable as you and we would make her do it as well.”
So much for that avenue of attack.
“It sounds tah me like you want to weasel your way outta this.”
“Just the public part. I’m fine with the apology part.”
I finally ducked my way out of the library with my trepidation growing at a rapid pace. As I looked up, there was already a small crowd of ponies waiting there for me. I looked back to the entrance of the tree and saw Applejack blocking my way back in. I squatted down and whispered to Twilight.
“Maybe I could just get you to teleport us there. I’m already uncomfortable with all the staring.”
“There are only twenty ponies here. If you can’t face them, then how are you going to give that apology when there could be ten times that many?” she whispered back.
Needless to say, that number effectively crushed my spirit right there. All I could do at the time was stare straight into the dirt. Two hundred ponies would be staring at me expecting an apology all the while scrutinizing my very existence. I wanted so badly to be invisible right then.
“Hey, where did he go?”
I heard what they said, but didn’t really care. I doubted there was any way I could do this. I didn’t really care how cool this day had been, I just wanted it to pass by without me. Please just let me go back to not being the center of attention for unknown people, ponies, or anything else.
“Hey Twilight! I felt somethin’ here.”
I then felt something smack into my face.
“Ouch!”
I looked up to see Twilight backing up with her hoof on her face.
“Twilight, why did you walk into my face?”
Her eyes went wide as she heard me.
“Is that you, Seth? Why didn’t you say you could turn invisible?”
“I’m what?”
“What do you mean 'What'? You didn’t notice?”
I reached out in front of myself and, sure enough, I couldn’t see my hand. I moved it forward to see it up close, but without any visual of it I accidentally smacked myself in the face. It was disorienting enough that I fell back on my ass.
“What happened?” asked Twilight.
“I smacked myself in the face and fell on my butt.”
I heard some giggling from a bunch of different ponies and from Spike as well.
“Alright already. At least this helps a little." And it really did. "Maybe I can do it with this new magic I'm capable of doing.”
“Ponies won’t know that you’re the one doing it if nopony can see you.”
I had a nice thought come to mind for that.
“I actually have a good idea for that. Spike, would you help me out with that?”
“Help you with what?”
I picked the little guy up and placed him on my shoulders behind my head. Everyone was a bit surprised at that.
“With Spike riding my shoulders up here, all the ponies will know where I am and I don’t have to stop being invisible. It’s win-win baby!”
“I am not a baby!” Spike protested.
“I wasn’t calling you one, Spike.”
“Oh. Heh heh, sorry about that.”
“It’s all good. You couldn’t tell who I was talking to from up there.”
“And the ponies won’t be able to tell who is talking to them if they can’t see you either,” Twilight interrupted; her voice now with a tone of impatience, “Now, drop that invisibility spell and hurry up! We don’t want to keep everypony waiting!”
I sighed and put my hand in front of my face. I concentrated a little and the spell wore off.
“Spike is still staying up here for now. It’s the only thing that’s keeping me from freaking out and running off.”
“Iffin it’ll get ya to movin, then I don’t see the harm.”
“Dead man walking,” I muttered underneath my breath.
After starting one way, then getting pointed in the right direction, I began to make my way to the town hall. The fact that I was being tailed by every pony that saw me today was not making the trip any better. The only thing that helped was letting my mind wander on that invisibility spell. I’d never seen any of the ponies use that before. Magic beams, teleportation, levitation; I had seen all of those before. Invisibility was entirely a different story. Maybe it was just a spell none of the ponies had used before. It didn’t necessarily mean that it didn’t exist. It could be that I just stumbled upon it.
I could ask Twilight about it. If she didn’t know anything about it, then I bet she was chomping at the bit, so to speak, to know about that. She always did like to learn new spells. It was too bad how she always moved on to something else once she learned a new one. If she refined some of those spells, like she seemed to do with her teleportation and levitation, she could be a true force against whatever was going to come next. I had no doubt that they would make a season three and she would probably be a better force against whatever came along if she just learned to use her magic more efficiently.
Of course, that really didn’t mean anything. Multiple universes mean I could be in an alternate universe and there would be nothing but sunshine and rainbows and a never-ending stream of notes about the magic of friendship to Princess Celestia. It would be nice to have a world without conflict; even if it would be boring.
Oh who am I kidding? Boring sucks balls. I hate boring. It’s why I’m enjoying this trip to Equestria right now. If anything, it’s definitely not boring. It is pretty cool.
Right now, though, it’s a bit nervous. Hell, I’m about two steps away from a total freak out. The dragon on my back was helping me not bolt out of there on the spot. He was also helping me on a different matter.
I had been focusing so much on the super special awesome magic that I found out I could now use that I had totally neglected the stuff beforehand. Namely, how I had picked up a hundred and fifty or so pounds with one hand as well as tanked one of Applejack’s patented apple bucking kicks. I knew I could pick up Spike with ease after that display. I honestly did it without even thinking about it. Now, I was keeping him up there as more of an endurance test. I didn’t have much in the way of strength, speed, or endurance. I now had strength however much it was. Testing my endurance was next on the list.
The fact that my knee wasn’t protesting my added weight was a good sign. I took a glance at my watch. I had been thinking and walking for what I believed was about ten minutes. That was usually when my knee would tell me I should cut that out. So far, nothing. A good sign for the time being. I decided to keep it up for now since I had no real reason to stop at the moment.
Another five minutes and I had arrived at my destination. I knew that from the look of the town hall, or I could just as easily tell from the hundreds of ponies that were crowded in front of the place. I’m pretty sure Twilight took me around the long way to avoid making me go by the crowd. A smart move from a smart pony. At least I was close enough that I couldn’t back away what with the group that was following me blocking my escape route. It really made me wish I knew how to do that teleportation thing right now.
Of course, I still went absolutely rigid when the crowd in front of the town hall caught sight of me. I had never been the target of everyone’s attention like that before in my entire life. Well maybe that spelling bee but I doubt all attention was solely on me like it was here. I was absolutely mortified. I was pretty sure I heard one of them talking to me, but I was too preoccupied with what felt like thousands of eyes upon me just staring at me like a side show.
Suddenly, there was a flash and I was on stage. I was disoriented for a few seconds before I noticed that fact. I was on a stage, next to a podium, and behind the mayor. The only good news was that Spike was still on my shoulders. I looked over to where I was standing and saw Twilight giving me a shooing motion with her hoof.
“Hey! You’re up!” Spike half yelled in my ear.
The volume hurt a little, but at least I didn’t ignore it like I had been. I put my head down and walked over to the podium. From there, I foolishly looked up. It looked, to me at least, like every pony there was examining my very worth all the way down to my very soul. Despite my much larger size, I felt like an ant looking up into the face of an elephant.
I briefly saw Spike waving his hand in front of my face. It really didn’t register to me.
The fire, however, did register quite well. I don’t know when he did it, but after waving his hand in front of my face, the little dragon jumped down and lit my pants on fire to get my attention. I quickly realized that while I had strength and endurance for the first time in years, I was still aware that fire was very hot.
I quickly dropped to the ground and rolled around to put the fire out. Once it was out, I threw a fierce glare at the dragon. Oddly enough, he simply shrugged. The shrug actually diffused my ire and I simply smirked. It was a not so simple act that broke me of my apprehension in a minor way that I desperately needed. Once that moment was over, I got to my feet and returned to the podium. The ponies in the crowd were all whispering amongst themselves. I decided to use the non sequitur moment to break the ice.
“Hello all you ponies! My name is Seth. I’m a human.”
I gestured at Spike.
“You all know Spike the dragon I hope. He is helping me with my speech today. Though I’m not sure about his methods, I’ll trust that it will be helping me today in some fashion.”
I heard some chuckles come from the crowd. I had no idea how much that would help until I heard it.
“Anyway, I doubt any of you know what a human is so I’ll just say that I’m a mythical creature and that you probably will never see another one of me. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it’s likely.”
I looked around and it seemed like they were less enthusiastic about this as I talked on. I chose to switch topics before I lost my nerve again.
“Moving on, I’m currently studying magic with Twilight and while I was training outside of Ponyville, I ended up releasing a large magic blast that ended up causing a large explosion and made the ground shake for a bit. I didn’t expect that to happen and was glad that I asked Twilight to take us to a place to practice where no ponies would get hurt. That being said, I hereby apologize to all of you for causing the earthquake and the subsequent panic that that itself caused. I didn’t mean to frighten any of you. I hope that you all can forgive me. Thank you all for your time.”
I quickly made my way off the stage; not even waiting for any reactions. I absolutely did not want to be there anymore. I then scooped up Spike, who was following me, and placed him on my shoulders again. Then, I went and picked up Twilight right off her feet and made my way back to the library carrying Spike on my shoulders again and Twilight under my arm.
“I hope you don’t mind me picking you up as well, Twilight. I also hope you don’t mind me saying that you were helping me by teaching me magic.”
“I don’t mind the magic part, but I don’t really like the fact that you keep sweeping me off of my hooves.”
I quickly suppressed the urge to make a snide comment on her choice of words and continued on.
“Sorry, I just wanted to leave an impression that wasn’t me being lit on fire or scared in front of a bunch of ponies. I’ll let you down now.”
I squatted down and placed Twilight on the ground.
“How about you, Spike? Do you want on the ground too?”
“Naw. I’m cool up here.”
I stood back up and we continued on our way away from the eyes of the ponies.
“See now? That weren’t too bad of a time now was it?”
I had honestly forgotten that Applejack was tagging along with us. I looked over to her and saw that she was sporting a nice grin.
“Yeah, well it’s too bad my pants had to be a casualty of it all.”
Everyone looked down at my pants. There were holes all around the calves of my pants.
“And before you say anything, Spike, I’m fine with what you did. It helped me with soul crushing stares that they were giving me.”
I looked at Twilight.
“Please don’t make me do that again,” I pleaded.
“Only if you agree to two things.”
“What would those be?”
“First, don’t be so careless using magic from now on. If you’re going to be learning magic from me, then you are going to follow my instructions to the letter. Got it?”
So she is going to be my teacher in magic. That will definitely help me in the long run.
“That’s fine. I'll agree to that. What’s the other thing?”
She then sported a wide grin.
“I want to know how you turned invisible.”
Yeah. I called that one.
Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth
On the Grandest Stage of Them All
Quick note: I'm putting some songs into this one, but I don't know about people's reading speeds. Click them at your own discretion.
"Alright guys, you know what I want to hear," I say to the stage of me's.
They all nod and move over to the instruments. After setting up quickly, the one on the mic gives me a thumbs up.
"We are the Equestrian Cover Band. We will be playing anything that comes into our heads since we don't know any songs from Equestria. And since I can feel Celestia's glare from all the way over here, we would like to let her know that we won't be playing anything she doesn't want the ponies subjected to. However, we will be starting off with something we thought our opponent might find appropriate. Let's start the show."
With a few taps from the drummer, my band quickly started into things with this.
I started tapping my foot along with the beat to start things off. It was perfect. His voice was magically changing to match the person who sang this. They were a perfect cover band. Right as the intro stopped, I snapped my fingers and a giant bat formed behind him. A second later, it conked him in his back. The force of the blow sent him to the ground. A fitting start to the contest.
As he stood back up, he snapped his fingers and a hail of pies fell from the sky. I snapped my fingers and created a large steel beach umbrella to cover me. As I noticed the pies hitting the ground, the earth underneath them started to sizzle and smoke. As soon as I realized what was happening, I turned to Pinkie Pie.
"Do not eat these pies, Pinkie Pie! Their dangerous!"
"Aaaaawwwwww!!!" I heard Pinkie yell.
"Acid pies," I said as I turned back to Discord. "You went pretty lethal to start off with."
Discord simply shrugged standing underneath his own umbrella. I snapped my fingers and an enormous cake appeared over his head. It quickly dropped on top of him; covering a good five foot diameter. A flash later and Discord appeared in front of the cake. His entire body was covered in cake and somehow frosting as well.
I turned back to Pinkie.
"That, you can eat. Just do it later okay?"
Pinkie nodded furiously to me while sporting an ear to ear grin.
I turned back around to see Discord snapping his fingers again. A torrent of water came rising up in front of him and formed a large tidal wave. A few seconds later and the massive wave headed straight for me. With only a few seconds to act, I summoned a large box and hurled it at the wave. Just as it was about to crush me, the wave stopped and turned solid. Well, as solid as a giant wave of strawberry Jello can be.
"This is the best fight ever!!!" I heard Pinkie Pie yell.
"It does seem rather goofy," I heard Applejack comment.
I didn't reply to their comments since I was busy looking for whatever Discord had planned next. I could barely even see him through the discolored Jello wave. Too bad I wasn't looking down at my feet. I didn't notice the teddy bear at my feet until I accidentally knocked into it with my foot. As I looked down to see it, the teddy bear exploded at my feet; sending me hurtling away rapidly.
I blacked out for a second when I hit the ground, but shook it off quickly. Never was I so thankful for enhanced durability than I was right then. Even though I had magically enhanced the gi that I was wearing since I knew that just a normal gi would be completely pointless, the explosion still ripped through the material and left me with a nasty burn on my left leg from my foot up to my knee.
I had never know pain like that in my entire life. The worst pain in my life by far. I had shut my eyes tightly and wished it away. I was pretty sure I heard yelling from the others, but I wasn't paying attention to it very much. I couldn't over the white hot, searing pain in my leg.
Suddenly, the pain started to lessen. I gradually forced my eyes open. There using her magic to heal me was Twilight Sparkle. The others had grouped around me as well while facing towards Discord. Discord, meanwhile, had teleported to the spot where I had been detonated from some several hundred feet away.
"What the hell man? This is completely different from your usual antics! You never hurt any of the ponies like this!"
"You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into do you?" he asked and chuckled. "This is a chaos duel. Even if our normal nature is benign, it is distorted when it comes into contact with magic from another source of chaos. Besides, I've never liked humans in the first place. You talk big without being able to back it up and you say things that you never truly mean. Your race is conniving, ruthless, bloodthirsty, and arrogant."
"Oh come on! Humans aren't the bastards you think they are!"
"You cannot convince me otherwise. Have your new little friends clear out of the way and let us continue."
"No!" yelled, to my surprise, Fluttershy. "He's our friend and friends help each other!"
"Yeah!" replied Dash.
"Darn right!" echoed Applejack.
"We all agree!" yelled Twilight.
"That's right meanie pants!" yelled Pinkie.
"Quite right!" finished Rarity.
Discord snorted in contempt.
"It doesn't matter. You lot can join him if you want. Without the help of the Elements of Harmony, you can do nothing to stop me. You lot are no threat."
There was a pause. A bit of a surprising pause that let me think of something. Could I pull it off? Maybe. He's set up for it. Oh gods of irony, let me pull this off.
"Your overconfidence is your weakness," I said with a wry smile.
Discord stared back at me; matching my smile with one of his own.
"Your faith in your... friends ... is yours."
With the pain now gone, I could enjoy this fully. I started to laugh. I laughed like a crazy person. Hell, right about then I probably was a crazy person. I could feel everyone's eyes upon me, even the princesses.
"What is so darn funny about that?" asked Applejack.
Taking a second to compose myself, I gave her an answer.
"I managed to pull off a line that no one here except Celestia would have known how to respond to. It's a famous line from a movie called Return of the Jedi . There's no way I should have been able to pull that off, and yet I did. It's really funny to me. It also help put me back in a good mood from that explosion."
I slowly stood up while making sure that my leg had been fully repaired. After testing it out a little, I turned my attention back towards Discord.
"I'm actually surprised you let me have time to recover."
"Why shouldn't I? You may not know the rules of our duel, but I do. The first to three points is the victor. You score a point whenever you knock your opponent to the ground or cause them a substantial injury. When a point is scored, you are not permitted to attack again until the injury is repaired or the opponent is back on their feet and launches their first counterattack. When you are victorious, the losers magic is expelled and added to the victor's. It may be a chaos duel, but there is still some order to the chaos; a method to the madness one might say."
"Interesting. Are their any other rules I should know about? Any at all?"
"Since we did not agree to any stipulations, then there is only one other rule that applies to our duel."
I waited for him to tell me, but he kept silent.
"Alright, what is that rule?" I finally asked.
He smirked.
"If you lose, anyone who helps you in our duel forfeits their lives."
Everyone gasped at the revelation.
"For the record," he continued, "Twilight Sparkle is the only one who has helped in this duel so her fate is tied to his already. The rest of you can still leave without consequence."
"Are you even listening to yourself talk anymore?" I asked. "They barely know me so I could understand if they didn't interfere on my behalf. However, the second Twilight became involved that became a moot point. These six would do anything for each other. Quit threatening them and let me go for my next move."
"As you wish, mortal."
Wow, I did not like the way he said that. This had gotten pretty heavy. Thankfully, the band had a general feel of the battle and started to play this little number.
"Everyone form up in front of me! It's time for a little power up."
I was happy that none of them questioned me. They just formed up in a row in front of me like I asked. I then gathered my energy into my hand and clasped them together. When they both began to glow I pulled them apart and slammed them palm first into the ground with a resounding yell. The energy shot up and into the six of them. As soon as it did, they all began to glow their respective colors, save Rarity who was encased in her magic's color.
Slowly the glow dimmed down to a visible aura around their bodies. Twilight turned to me and showed that their eyes were now completely white and glowing like when she was using the elements.
"What is going on Seth?" she almost yelled.
"Remember when I used my magic to amplify Pinkie Pie at the surprise party? Well, I did the same thing only this time around it seems to be about five times more potent. Everyone here now has access to magic inherent to their special talent. Let's show Discord a little bit about the power of friendship!"
"Right!" they all yelled in unison.
Rainbow Dash started things off by catapulting herself right at Discord at near-Sonic Rainboom speed. Discord managed to dodge with the narrowest of margins and Rainbow Dash promptly went headfirst into the Jello. However, at the speed she was traveling, she blew all the way through the Jello and pulled a gut-wrenchingly perfect ninety degree turn upwards.
After Dash's initial attempt, Pinkie Pie went next. She pulled her party cannon straight from her mane and aimed it straight at Discord. I always wondered where she pulled those from. Maybe her mane is where her hammerspace access is? Probably so.
Every item she fired from her cannon was a baked good of some kind. Pies, cakes, muffins, fritters, cupcakes, brownies, things I weren't even sure of what they were came flying at Discord. However, none them touched him. He managed to sidestep everything fired at him because of the distance and the speed of the projectiles. He was even grinning as he did so.
Applejack then reared up her hind legs. Instead, of bucking with them, however, she slammed the ground with them. Out of the ground, a torrent of vines erupted towards Discord. The smug little bastard simply took to the air to avoid them. What surprised him and everyone there immensely was the trail of a red laser that missed in front of him by a few feet. All eyes turned to where the laser was fired from.
We were all amazed when our eyes fell upon Fluttershy. I was going to doubt what I saw, but a singe in her mane made me believe what I saw. Her stare had been upgraded to full laser vision.
"You know, despite getting blown up, this day is just full of awesome," I said almost giddy.
Rarity got things going again by glowing slightly and yanking some of the dirt out of the ground. Then, in another act of awesome, she compressed them into small orbs which actually turned into gemstones. She then hurled the gemstones at Discord with her magic. Unfortunately, they didn't go very fast and he was able to dodge the projectiles with ease.
"Don't worry Rarity, I'll help with that," said Twilight.
Using her magic, Twilight caught the projectiles Rarity created and started hurling them back at Discord. Discord was still dodging them. However, with Twilight's skill he seemed to be actually exerting himself to get out of their way. Eventually, a sphere of fire erupted from Discord; incinerating the gemstones. As the wave of fire dissipated, another shot of laser fire narrowly missed Discord to his left. If Fluttershy isn't afraid to use that on Discord, then I'm willing to bet that it's non-lethal.
Suddenly, I noticed the area getting a little darker. I looked up past Discord to the sky. There flying circles around some large clouds was Rainbow Dash. Her contrail was glowing even more than it did before. The clouds she was circling were getting darker and darker. I was betting that she was going to unleash an electrical storm on Discord.
It turned out I was right.
While Pinkie Pie started to launch more pastries and Fluttershy fired off her eye beams, Discord kept dodging the oncoming attacks with ease. He kept his gaze on us the entire time to keep ahead of what we were doing. It meant that he couldn't keep his eyes on the skies.
Eventually, there was a crackle in the clouds which seemed to signal Rainbow Dash to stop flying around them and fly up even higher than before. Just in case that got out of hand I got ready with a shield spell. Shield spells are remarkably easy. Just think hard wall of magic and your about halfway there. Oh hey, I almost didn't notice, but the band started playing something else. Stop. Focus on Dash.
I retrained my gaze on Rainbow Dash as she turned around and started heading back to the cloud. She seemed to be going way too fast for knocking out the lightning. What exactly was she up to? Is that her cone? Oh holy crap. I brought up the shield just as it happened.
Right as she connected with the cloud, she let off a Sonic Rainboom inside of it. There was a flash as a massive rain of lightning bolts crashed upon Discord. It was amazing. They were all rainbow colored lightning bolts. I watched as one after another struck Discord. It seemed to be unceasing. I don't know how long it lasted, but finally it subsided leaving a scorched Discord floating in the air. Then, after another few seconds, he fell down to the ground.
Rainbow cleared away the clouds and flew back to us; cheers from all over echoing around her.
"AWWW YEAAAAAH!!! How did you like that!?! I call it the Sonic Rainbolt!!!"
"That kicked so much ass. I'd say that cements your legacy as the most awesome pony in Equestria."
"It was definitely quite the sight there sugarcube."
"It was incredible! First you were like peyuuu, and then you were all phwump, and then you went all woo woo woo, and you went up and came down all whoosh and then you got to the cloud and you went all boooom and then Discord went all zap zap zap sizzle!!! It was the best thing ever!!!"
"I hate to bring this up everypony, but don't you think that Discord went down too easily?" asked Twilight.
"What? Why we were throwing everything at him darling. What makes you think that he went down easily?" asked Rarity.
"Common sense," I stated bluntly. "He didn't shield himself. He didn't teleport away. He waited patiently for our attacks like they were the easiest thing in the world. He's toying with us."
"You are quite right."
We all jumped to attention and looked back to the voice. Discord was back on his feet, looking no worse for wear.
"The two of them are indeed correct. I gave you all a little breathing room to see what exactly you would try to do to me. For the most part, I was actually disappointed. In fact, I'm mostly disappointed in you Seth. You've done almost nothing this entire time. You supercharged the Elements of Harmony and sent them to fight me. You haven't really done anything to me that I haven't allowed you to do. I find you a little above average in intelligence and definitely more sociable than any of the ponies in Equestria."
"If you want sociable, you ought to check out some of the people on Earth."
"I don't want to deal with any more of your kind than I have to. I couldn't really imagine a whole civilization of you now. It doesn't matter anyway. It's time to stop fooling around."
He quickly snapped his fingers and the glow around the girls disappeared. Another snap of his fingers and they fell to the ground as if something was hold them down. I snapped my fingers and several stone pillars shot up around Discord. However, Discord simply teleported away.
I scanned the are looking for Discord's attack. This time I also kept an eye out at my feet so that didn't happen twice. I heard a chuckle like he was nearby. Perhaps he's... maybe. Let's see if two can play that game.
I quickly activated my invisibility spell. I then summoned some magic and slowly levitated myself off the ground as to not rustle any of the dirt or grass. I only managed to pick myself up a few inches off of the ground and moved myself a few dozen feet over to the right. It was enough that I was no longer in the same position for him to make a blind attack and connect.
"So, you can become invisible as well," said Discord's disembodied voice at volume that suggested he wasn't too close. "That's quite the hard spell to use."
I was going to retort, but I realized that doing so might give away my position. I wasn't good enough to know which direction his voice was coming from either. It may have seemed like we were on equal footing, but I was willing to bet that he could figure out where I was soon. I needed a strategy. An actual strategy. I was technically up two points to one so if I could somehow manage to get one more hit in, even by accident, then this duel would be over.
The problem was that Discord was no longer messing around. I bet that even that bat to his back was a freebie. I think he practically said that. That doesn't mean that he can't be surprised. If doesn't see things coming... Wait... If he doesn't see things coming then-
"There you are!" Discord interrupted. He then promptly fired a blast of magic that came forty feet from my left.
I barely had time to raise a shield. As my invisibility spell dropped in a panic, I placed a half dome shield into the path of the blast; deflecting it upwards.
"A good reaction time," mocked Discord. "Let's see if you can stop this."
He snapped his fingers and a large boulder appeared over my head. As it started to fall, I grabbed it with levitation and hurled it in Discord's direction. I almost regretted it. The boulder came dangerously close to where the girls had been pinned down. It flew over the top of them, but if I had skimmed the ground at all, then I would have hit them instead. It was a bit of a confidence breaker.
It was definitely enough to break my concentration. Discord grabbed the boulder as it passed him and hurled it back towards me. I had enough time to raise my arms in front of me and stop its momentum. I caught it in my palms and I skidded back a dozen feet before stopping and as I did the boulder crashed to the ground in front of me. My palms stung a little bit. It was a good indicator of just how fast he hurled that boulder at me.
I jumped up onto the boulder and looked for Discord. He had not moved from where he had thrown the boulder back at me.
"Alright, let's try something a little more Avatar styled."
I quickly gathered magic into my hand and then followed up by dropping my stance. I then motioned to the side and the ground underneath the girls moved a good distance in the same direction. I then thrust my arms forward palms down and several pillars of earth erupted at Discord's feet. He simply jumped back out of the way as though he expected where they came from.
Seeing that happen, I jumped from the boulder towards Discord. I then managed to surround my hands with fire and as soon as I hit the ground I unleashed a torrent of fire at Discord. He responded by rolling to his right and firing a beam of magic at me. I countered by switching stances and summoned a wall of earth into the path of the bolt. I didn't see the explosion, but I certainly heard it. I followed by thrusting the wall towards Discord.
Discord took to the air to avoid it and started to hover in the air. I knew he was still playing with me despite his declaration. He was still not using teleportation or shields. Until I saw him use one I could assume that he was still looking down on me in a metaphorical sense.
I switched back to fire and started throwing handfuls of fire at Discord. He simply weaved around the fire in midair with a half-smile. This wasn't working. Fire and earth styles were the best to attack with. Air is the best to defend with and water is pointless since there is no source of it nearby. Don't even get me started on bloodbending. I didn't feel like becoming a monster. I needed another strategy change.
"I can't seem to make this work for me. Perhaps something in the variety of summoning would work? Yes. Let's try that."
I then coalesced more magic into my hands and tried to bring something forth. I peered into my mind to think of something to throw at him. It needed to be something that he would be unable to simply dismiss. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind.
My pause was not lost on Discord.
"Having trouble?"
"Kind of yes. It's hard to come up with something to beat you with. Especially since I'm more of a novice in chaos magic than you are."
"Disappointing," he said as he sighed.
"Well, you've had your power for what, a couple millennia at least? Ten millennia maybe? Hell, I'm twenty seven years old. I bet you've had laughing fits that have gone on longer than that."
"Once or twice perhaps. I'm not going to tell you my age if that's what you're after."
"It wasn't, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious about it anyway. I've never seen a whatever it is you are before. You're some kind of mishmash of several types of animals. For all I know you could predate this planet. I've heard how long the princesses have been alive. I know how long a Time Lord could potentially live to. You are just too big a mystery to not know about."
"I'm surprised a being like yourself knows of the Time Lords. They are a closely guarded secret."
That was a bit of surprising news. There were Time Lords in this universe as well? Oh wait. Doctor Whooves. Damn, I was kind of hoping that interpretation of him was just fanfiction nonsense. I'm guessing that Time Turner is just a possible alias.
"Never mind how you know about them," Discord said; breaking into my thoughts. "You are out of ideas and that makes this even more boring."
A snap of his fingers an he disappeared. A second later, he reappeared in front of me. Before I could even react, a white hot pain jolted through my gut. I looked to see a sword thrust through my stomach just above my navel. At first, I was just in disbelief. Then, I quickly realized that I could no longer feel my legs.
I then started screaming.
Discord pulled the sword from my gut and without the leverage I quickly fell to the ground. I was screaming in agony.
"That's two points each," Discord said callously.
I barely heard him over myself. I thought that getting that burn earlier was bad. This was much worse. I honestly thought that a stabbing would hurt less. Maybe it was psychological. Maybe it was something that had to do with the sword he used. I didn't really care at the time. All I remembered was just how painful it was.
I wasn't sure when it happened, but the pain started to subside. I was getting a bit cold and light-headed too. I think I realized that I was about to go into shock. I just started to think things. How could he be like this? Did he really change that much because of this duel? What is he going to do once this is over? What will happen to everyone else? Was there nothing I could do? Was there anything I could do to stop this? I could make anything with this magic. Why couldn't it help me now?
I just stared down at by bleeding wound.
"You know, I bet Goku wouldn't be taking this like a coward," I said barely above a whisper. "He'd probably just get a senzu bean from someone and he'd be all better. I mean Yamcha had a fucking hole in his body and it helped him get better."
Then, it hit me. I could create anything with this magic. Did that include a senzu bean? Well, I didn't have anything to lose right now.
I concentrated as much as I could and snapped my fingers. Sure enough, a bean materialized in front of me. I hoped beyond hope that it would work as advertized. I reached out as quick as I could despite the feeling I had and picked up the bean. I brought it back and placed it in my mouth. It had a weird flavor to it, but I wasn't really concentrating on that. I chewed it up for a few seconds and swallowed. I then waited.
And waited.
And waited.
I couldn't feel it working. I wasn't feeling any better. My stomach still hurt. I was still light-headed. My feet ached.
Wait. My feet ached? I could feel my feet again. I looked down and saw my foot move back and forth. I then reached down and pulled up my gi and undershirt. The wound in my stomach was gone.
It worked. For the love of everything good that ever was and ever will be it worked.
I started to pick myself up off of the ground. I could hear some gasps coming from where I assumed the others were. I didn't really care. Though, I assume the me band had stopped playing if I could hear the others.
"Well, well, well. I thought for sure I had killed you with that special sword of mine. I suppose that you do still have a trick up your sleeve if you managed that."
So, it was a special sword. Bastard really had it out for me. I really wanted him to pay for that.
I turned to face him. He had moved a bit closer to the others, but wasn't that close by. Maybe fifty feet from the girls and a hundred feet from the princesses. Just where I had moved them all. The girls were still stuck to the ground as well. I guess whatever Discord did to them was localized on them and not the area.
"So my little friend it comes down to this. The next one of us to score a hit is the victor. You have the next move. Pray that it is a good one because I'm done fooling around. The next move I make will be the end of this. You have one shot. Make it a good one."
He was goading me. I knew it. I was still angry about my near death experience. I had no idea how much more I could give him. When in doubt, go all out.
"A good one? Fine. I have one good one left. Let's see if you can take it."
I shifted my stance and dropped down while cupping my hands near my hips.
"No! Don't use that Seth!" I heard Twilight yell. "We're too close! You'll hit us with that too!"
"KAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
"What is it your doing?" asked Discord.
"MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
"It sounds ridiculous."
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
"And what were you talking about Twilight?" he said turning his head to ask her.
"MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
"That blast was too big last time! Now there's even more magic you're using this time! You'll blast everything in a quarter mile if you hit Discord with that!"
"What!?!" yelled everyone; Discord included.
I wasn't listening to them. The magic energy had started to appear in my hands. It was already the size of a basketball and was growing at a slow, yet steady pace.
"He wouldn't dare!" yelled Discord. "He's your friend. He wouldn't dare do anything to hurt you."
The energy in my hands said otherwise. It had almost doubled in size and continued to grow.
"No! It doesn't matter. I'll simply fix this now."
Discord brought up his hand. It was now or never.
I concentrated hard. Before he snapped his fingers, I teleported behind him. While everyone was adjusting to what happened I let loose my attack.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"
I looked on as the attack collided with his back. The sphere on the beam was half as big as he was. It swept him off of his feet and carried him into the air. The wave then sped up into the sky until the both of them were out of sight.
"Warp Kamehameha. Enjoy it and the humble pie," I finished while breathing hard.
"That. Was. AWESOME!!!" I heard Rainbow Dash cry.
It was soon followed by some cheering from everyone else. I looked back to see everyone starting to get free of the spell that held them down. As soon as the six of them got to their feet, they rushed over to me and tackled me into a group hug.
"I'm glad none of you are hurt."
"Us hurt? Ah think all ah us started cryin' when we heard that scream and saw you fall to the ground. We thought thatcha' wern't gettin up after that."
"I was wondering the same thing after that sword severed my spine. I'm really lucky that I conjured up that senzu bean."
"Conjured up what?" asked Twilight.
"A senzu bean. It's a special bean that, once eaten, can restore your strength and heal any wounds. Even wounds that are fatal can be treated with that bean. It's one more thing I can tally to Goku and his friends."
"I'm just happy that you're okay," said Fluttershy.
"So am I," said Pinkie Pie. "I mean how else was I supposed to have a 'We Beat Discord Again' party if you weren't there?"
"Good point Pinkie," I said. "Let's go get everyone out of those cells and go on back to have that party."
"Good idea," said Twilight.
"I have a small flaw in that plan that you might want to know about."
We all jumped up and turned around.
It was Discord. He was looking singed all over. What did it take to actually bring him down?
"Perhaps I should have used a Final Flash on you instead."
"Shut up!" Discord spat at me. His usual flamboyance was gone.
"Look, I won. You can keep your powers if you want. Just release everyone and go wreak havoc somewhere else. I honestly don't care all that much."
"You little cretin! I have never lost a chaos duel. Never! You think I'm going to do what you asked? You and I are the only two wielders of chaos magic left. Once I beat you, then there will just be me!"
Discord then brought his arms up and they began to charge up with magic.
"Oh this can't be good."
A small arc of light appeared in between his two hands. It looked almost like frozen still lightning. If I wasn't so concerned about what he was doing with it, I would be admiring it a little.
"Take this, runt!"
He then hurled the bolt, beam, whatever at me. I brought up my hands and gathered energy into them. As I caught the attack, it forced me back a few feet. It sure felt like lightning. It made my hands and arms tingle like they had fallen asleep.
"Don't think that it will be that easy!"
Discord then rushed towards me. It was all I could do to keep the bolt thing from hitting something around me. I definitely didn't want this doing anything to anyone. Who knows what might happen?
As Discord was about to close in, a bright light erupted from somewhere. It stopped Discord in his tracks. I looked down to see the coin underneath my shirt was bright enough to emit a glow through the shirt. Suddenly, I could move the bolt thing from where I had stopped it.
"That's impossible!" Discord yelled. "I made that so that you couldn't stop it on your own! Not even the ponies could help with that! What is happening?"
"It's called screw the rules!" I yelled as I mustered up the power to hurl it back at him.
As it hurtled back towards Discord, he gathered up some magic and fired a beam at the thing. As it connected, everything seemed to stop.
"If I can't hit you with it directly, then I'll simply hit everything around it!"
The arc seemed to glow brighter and brighter. Just as it was beginning to be too bright to look at, it exploded. As I witnessed it happen, everything became a golden hue. I squinted to see if I could see through it, but it was no use. Finally, the light died down and I could see what happened.
There, spread out around me, were seven of the same arc beam things that Discord had thrown at me. They weren't still like before. Instead, they were moving slightly like living lightning. It stopped at two points on either side, but in between it danced around like crazy.
"What in the name of Equestria has Discord done?" asked Celestia.
I looked back to see that the cages that held everyone had disappeared. The princesses had moved in closer to inspect the energy bolts while the guards had spread out to cover the area.
"It's a dimensional rift. They've all been sent to alternate dimensions."
"What?" said Celestia with a hefty tone of disbelief. "How would you possibly know what this is?"
I turned to her and looked her in the eyes.
"I know because this is what Discord said would happen."
Author's Note
Yes! It's coming together now! What the hell just happened? I get to reveal my grand plan of writing next chapter!
If you are wondering about the song selection, know that I could only play songs that I have heard before.
Things I wanted to add, but decided not to:
Finally, a note to skultech: That Sonic Rainbolt was for you. That was my 20% cooler that I added in later.
Edit: changed the power up song. I think it goes better and I get to put something with Power Rangers in it after all.
