Jumping Blind

Chapter 9: Bad Omens

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(Somewhere)

I drifted in the shifting darkness for a while, allowing the currents to carry me. It was a nice break from my usual dreams involving my memories, very relaxing. Eventually my mind congealed enough to notice two other presences in the void. Curiously, I floated over to them.

“How was I supposed to know he could do that?!” A male voice cried, frustrated. “I was just trying to give some advice.”

“We all know how your advice normally turns out.” A female voice stated flatly.

“Yes, well… There is that.” A long sigh could be heard accompanied by a thump of something heavy hitting the ground. “Is one not allowed to grieve for the loss of his species? Who doesn’t want their sins to be forgiven?”

“We all do, some more than others…” The voice seemed very sad. I tried to move closer, but there was some kind of a wall preventing movement forward.

“It wasn’t even on purpose. When I became a god, the chaos overwhelmed me. It reached out to every other source and pulled them into itself. Unfortunately, that chaos is what was keeping my kind alive.”

“And now you seek redemption. How are we supposed to know that you aren’t trying to trick us are wreak havoc on Equestria?”

“Were any ponies harmed during my reign? Were any killed? No, there were no casualties ever. It isn’t my fault that you ponies are to harmonious to appreciate my sense of humor. Why do we keep having this argument?” There was a pause. “Ok, I swear we’ve been in this room before. Do you remember how we unlocked it last time?”

I slammed against the barrier repeatedly, rearing back and pounding against it with all of my might. I had been trained in mental combat and nothing would keep me out of my own mind. Something cracked under my blows; giving way and making me tumble into a lit corridor. I flopped onto the floor and lay there for a few moments to recover before looking around. The walls were white and decorated with trinkets from my past jobs while the floor was covered in a red, plush carpet. A glance down revealed I was back in my human form, dressed in a set of red robes and a bit paler than usual though.

I followed the now bickering voices down the hall while music played in the background without a source. I glanced at the various decorations. A pair of worn dice, a charm for a keyblade, even a large war hammer with the word ‘Pwnhammer’ etched into the head among other things were placed on pedestals lining the walls. As I walked a faint recognition hit me. Wait, this is the Pendergasts’ mansion. But it was burned down before I even met the guy… Oh right, this was how he taught me mental defenses. The entire mansion was a fortress and every room held puzzles and traps. Anything that came in would either become trapped or die, leaving couldn’t be done without my help.

Reaching a set of monstrous oak doors brought me out of my mental rambling. The voices could be heard from just behind them, so I placed a hand on the lock and murmured “Nevermore.” Several clicks were heard as a series of increasingly complex locks were undone. As the last fell into place the door swung open.

Luna and Discord sat across from each other at the table. On wrought iron bases sat heavy slabs of wood from bowling alley lanes, forming four benches and the table. The two looked different from the last time I saw them, they were both human. Discord looked like an older gentleman, possibly a professor, with long grey hair and a goatee while wearing a checkered suit that brought out his mismatched eyes. Luna was a few inches shorter than Discord with long wavy hair that showed her night sky, a midnight blue dress accenting her pale skin, and a similar aura of power to Celestia radiating off of her. They both were slumped onto the table with similar looks of exhaustion but lifted their heads to face the door as I entered.

“Welcome to the gates of my mind.” I stated while gesturing grandly to the room around us.

“Do you have any idea how long we have been here trying to contact you?” Luna rose to her feet and began stalking angrily towards me.

“Three days! And while this place is delightfully chaotic, I had no desire to spend that long here!” He nearly screamed from his seat.

I waved a hand at the lunar princess, effortlessly closing her mouth and setting her back in her seat. “Actually, you’ve been here for about thirty minutes. There’s a minor time distortion once you enter the mansion. While I’m conscious my mind usually runs at an organic pace, but once I’m unconscious it can go at a synthetic pace without risk of an overlaod.” I shrugged at them. “Why are you here anyway?”

They glared at me before Luna began. “You were put to sleep in the throne room after a particular memory resulted in a magical outburst. It seems that the chaos built up in your body faster than expected.”

“I had no idea you were that powerful of a Source my boy.” Discord sounded… proud?

“We also didn’t know of your status as a Source. We would like to apologize for our part in the actions that lead to this.” She said sadly in the ancient dialect.

I patted her shoulder comfortingly. “It’s fine, no one could have known my reaction to that.” My gaze turned to Discord. “Quit fidgeting. There aren’t any eldritch abominations here to attack you. Ok, that’s not true. There’s a few acting as guard dogs in their rooms, including a wall that eats blood. But those aren’t anywhere near here.” I looked around at the room. “Speaking of here… How did you only make it this far if you’ve been here for three days? The entrance is through that door.” I pointed to the door opposite from where I entered.

They looked at each other before flinching a bit. “We may have… gotten a little lost.”

The God of chaos rolled his eyes in opposite directions. “We’ve been going in circles. None of the rooms stay the same.”

My chuckles filled the room. “Yeah they do that. You should see the Escher vault. Would you two like to get out of here?”

Discord crawled over to me on his knees while giving me his best puppy dog face. His face actually turned into a puppy. “Oh Celestia’s ever burning flank, let me out!”

Luna glared at him. “If you leave, you will return to your statue.”

“Yes, but I’ll still have my connection with him.” He gestured at me. “We’ll be able to talk a bit. Being a living stone statue beats being trapped here.”

I rolled my eyes. “Hey now, you wouldn’t believe how my things have been trapped in here. You get your own room in the maze and everything.” They both looked at me in horror. “No takers? Fine, we can go back.” With a snap, the two disappeared and the room began to fade.

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“Ugh… Did anyone get the license plate of that train?” I groaned as sunlight seared my eyes. I closed them again momentarily to allow them to readjust before opening them again. I was in a hospital room currently on one of the beds.

“We told thou this of the possibilities of your actions. Now look at him.” Luna’s voice came from the open door. She sounded very unhappy.

“Luna, your speech. Yes you did tell me. Now would you stop reminding me? I believe that our friend should be waking soon.” Celestia practically growled back at her sister. So maybe that little episode was a dream after all.

They both walked through the door way into the room. Luna gasped and ran at me when she saw that I was awake, only to be stopped by a golden aura. Celestia greeted me first, “Hello Vigil, how are you feeling?”

“I’ve been worse.” I shrugged at her. “After being thrown into the heart of a star, there's not much that can phase me for long.”

Luna giggled at me, trying in vain to cover it with her hooves before explaining what had happened, Celestia noted that she liked the new colors of the flowers in the throne room. As I expected, being a Goddess of the night she could enter unconscious minds in her realm. Discord on the other hand seemed to be able to make limited contact with the chaos running through me. After some chatter about what should happen and Discord’s warning, we agreed to leave it for the time being. If anything came up we would react accordingly. They both had to return to their duties so twenty minutes, a saddlebag with some bits that one of the princesses had left, and a release slip later I found myself standing outside the entrance of the hospital wing.

I took my time winding my way out to the gardens. Once I reached there I was escorted onto a chariot and flown back to Ponyville. They had pegasi flying a cart that held a pony, no, draconequus that could fly by himself. I thought over that along with the princesses’ decision to ignore the warning and send me back despite the chaotic entity that could apparently contact me mentally at any time. I shook my head sourly as I hopped off and thanked the chariot drivers. It’ll take a better man… stallion than I to understand women much less immortal goddess princesses.

You got that right buddy.

I looked around for the source of the voice, but I was alone. Ignoring it, I began my trek to the Sugarcube Corner. The Cakes could have needed some help restocking after the lunch rush and with Pinkie there you never knew if any or all of the work would get done. She’s like a manic depressive except without the depressive part, sometimes she’ll have everything don before you even say anything and others she’s so distracted that she causes a bigger workload.

It was a nice day, sunny and warm with a pleasant breeze from time to time. I spotted Fluttershy weaving her way through the crowded marketplace as I flew above the craze. Gliding over to her, I greeted “Hiya miss Fluttershy. What brings you out here today?”

She let out a squeak as she leapt into the air, followed by landing on her back. I swear that I heard a fainting goat somewhere in the background. I tapped her gently with a hoof. “Um… Anypony home?”

Her eyes opened, followed by a small smile. “Oh, hello. I didn’t see you there Vigil.” She turned thoughtful before switching to confused. “Didn’t you have a meeting with the princesses today?”

I rolled my eyes and helped to her hooves while explaining my last couple of hours. She listened quietly without ever asking a question. “So I decided to go to the Sugarcube Corner to see if the Cakes needed some help. Would you like to join me?”

She nodded slowly before realizing that I had asked a question. “Oh, um, sure? I mean if it isn’t too much trouble. I was going there anyway.”

My face was reintroduced to my left hoof followed by a hiss as pain shot through the limb. Fluttershy’s gaze was somewhere between concerned and glaring as she grabbed and examined it. “Is your leg still hurting? Why didn't you tell anypony?”

“I think being trampled last week knocked a few wires loose or something. It can’t be too bad; anything broken would have been repaired. No one would be able to help without the proper tools anyway and those are in my workshop.” I gently tugged my foreleg back. “I really need to get that taken care of. I’ll talk to the Doc after this.”

The look on the pegasus’ face was saddening. She looked so lost and confused that it was nearly pitiful. I facehooved again, this time using my right. “Sorry, I forget that other ponies don’t know what I’m talking about. Let’s just go, I’ll be fine once I set up my house.”

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(Sugarcube Corner)

Brownie batter coated everything in the dining room. The floor, the chairs, the tables, the people, even the corners of the ceiling had a thick layer on them. I stared dismally at the chocolaty carnage before me. “Pinkie, how did you do that? There was only enough in that bowl to made one tray.”

Pinkie approached Fluttershy and I with a manic grin even visible under the coating of batter. “Do what? Can we do it again?!”

“No dear, just help us clean this mess up before the lunch rush.” Cup Cake and her husband Carrot were already starting to mop the floor. The couple had been introduced after they pulled Pinkie off of me or the third time today. They were nice enough but I have no idea how they deal with her all day.  I sighed and took the mops away from them. I had also been told that that needed to leave rather quickly for something, wasn’t sure what though.

“Pinkie and I can handle this. It was our fault anyway. Go get cleaned up.”

“Are you sure? We could-” Carrot spoke up. I liked him, mostly, he’s very pleasant under the slight intolerance for oddities.

“Nope” I interrupted him, using a wing to drag the bucket of soapy water over to me. “We’ve got it covered. It’ll be finished before you come back.”

They gave me a disbelieving look, but went upstairs to clean up before they had to leave. I turned around to address my accomplice to find her licking the last of the batter out of Fluttershy’s tail, the rest of the mare was spotless. I ignored the implications of that, deciding that Pinkie and Purple will NEVER meet. She turned to me with that same grin on her face, she was batterless too. What happened there? “Don’t even think about it Pinkie.” I closed my eyes and concentrated, tapping into the ambient magic around me. All of the batter slid off of me as I made it frictionless temporarily. “There.”

“You can do magic?” Fluttershy squeaked.

Pinkie answered, “Well duh… Of course he can!”

I nodded happily. “Yep, I like to think I’m good at it as well. I’m just happy that worked, I was a little worried that it would take longer to recover after this morning.”

The girls just nodded, having no idea what I just said. I rolled my eyes at them. “Fine, if neither of you are interested I guess you don’t want to see a few tricks I have then.”

Pinkie lit right up at that. “What kind of tricks? Please show us. PLEEEEEASE.”

I looked over at Fluttershy, she nodded in agreement with Pinkie. “Ok, but don’t freak out when you see it.” My closed my eyes again as I controlled my breathing. This time I started concentrating in a completely different direction. My magic is different than most in that I can pull energy in two ways. I can pull power from the world around me, which is the way that most do it. The second way is unique to me. Sometime back I learned that I was a Source, something that magic flows from, but that’s a story for a different day.

Magic is a byproduct of life, all living things generate it, but Sources are connected to non-physical places between realities where that magic collects and wells up from. Think of it this way, clouds rain onto the earth where the water collects and flows to different points creating rivers, lakes, underground basins. The water is magic, the clouds are life, the earth is as its name states, rivers are ley-lines, and the places where the water collects are Sources.

However, this connection is what makes all of my magic inherently unstable. Any slip or miscalculation while directing the flow can have disastrous consequences to me.

I concentrated on directing the strange energy though my body. I smirked a little as a translucent sapphire aura surrounded me, sparks jumping from my hooves to the floor as the excess grounded itself. Show time. I pushed the magic and ‘watched’ as it refracted into different colors like light going through a prism, I released it as the last of it poured through. I opened my eyes to see the five chromatic copies of myself. Same orange coat, same skinny stature, but their slitted eyes showed their color.

“You know what to do.” I commanded jokingly.

Orange and Blue immediately grabbed the mops and began mopping the floor. Green pulled a pair of brushes out of Yellow’s bag and began scrubbing the walls. Yellow was too busy to notice, he was being as much of a gentleman as he could to the girls. He kissed their offered hooves while his cloak was dropped to the floor to allow them passage over the mess. Once they were on a cleaned patch, he swept up the cloak and joined Green on the wall.

I counted heads, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange, Purple… PURPLE?! I tackled my fragmented creativity to the floor. “What are you doing out of my head?” I hissed while pinning him to the ground under me.

He chuckled, melting into my shadow and rising up to my side. “You know I’m always here right? Silly me, I’m a part of you.” While I was trying to figure out what just happened, Purple bounced over me and plopped in front of Pinkie. “Hello, I’m Purple. I’m the personification of his creativity. You must be Pinkie Pie.” ABORT, ABORT. MISSION IS IN DANGER.

“Purple, you’re here for a reason. Help clean up.” I glowered at him.

“Really? That’s all? Pfft.” He clapped his hooves together and all of the batter disappeared.

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(Canterlot Castle)

Luna had just laid down for a moment in her private chamber to rest. She had a stressful morning beginning with lowering the moon, an act that still left her exhausted after a millennium away, then was forced into speech lessons to catch up with the current vernacular, and that fiasco with Vigil.

She closed her eyes for a moment- “AAAAAAAHHHHHH” –before a scream forced her eyes open again in surprise. It sounded like it came from her sister’s room.

The Princess of the night sprang out bed and rushed there to find the entire room, including a very surprised looking Celestia, coated in a dark, sticky substance. Further examination revealed it to be brownie batter. Both sisters looked at each other before the normally white Alicorn queried.

“Do you smell peppermint?”

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(Sugarcube Corner)

Purple grinned broadly at me. “Oooooh Celly’s going to be so mad at us.”

Green and Grey looked at each other. Green was the first to speak up, “Even if he’s a piece of me, I really wonder about his sanity.” The others nodded in agreement.

I sighed at myselves, but turned to address the two mares to my left. “Sorry about that. Purple… Well, he’s a bit odd.”

Pinkie, of course, only said “I like him!”

We finished cleaning and were shuffled out the door with Pinkie saying something about getting things ready for Applejack. Fluttershy left after softly explaining that she had to go get ready for AJ too. I was left sitting at the doorstep of the bakery alone. Deciding that now was a good time to go get the materials from the Doctor, I began my search.

It took a few hours to find it, but I entered the building with a timepiece hanging over the door after shaking off a few baby rabbits. “Doc? You here?”

The familiar British voice called from the back of the store. “One moment please, I’ll be right with you.” A metallic crash followed by some liberal swearing then the Doctor appeared from behind a door leading to what I assume would be a workshop. “Hello Vigil, here for the materials then?” I nodded and he led me to the backyard. Just behind the building stood the TARDIS in all of its glory. The worn, blue police box hadn’t changed despite the different dimension. He unlocked the door and held it open.

I took a step in and the entire ship began to make a deep, low-pitched sound. My raised eyebrow at Doc made him scratch the back of his head. “I think she’s purring…”

My hoof met my face yet again today. At this rate I'm going to have a horseshoe shaped bruise on my forehead. Speak of which, am I supposed to be wearing those? A few minutes of futile searching through wires and loose panels under the central platform, I gave up and asked for directions. “Doc, do you know where my toolbox would be?”

The Doctor pulled a toolbelt out of a corner of the console. “This one?”

I climbed back up to get a look. “Yeah, that’s it. It was a tool box when I put it in the other TARDIS though.” We both shrugged at that. I slipped the belt into my bag. I looked around idly for a moment. I didn’t have anywhere to go at the moment, all of the tasks for the day had been finished and it was only three in the afternoon. I had a rare moment of peace in my hectic life, no screaming, running, or fighting to be done. “Any idea why there’s a horde of baby rabbits stampeding through the town while the inhabitants panic or why said inhabitants are rushing to the hospital?”

Doc gave me a blank look. “I have no idea. Perhaps I’ll look into it later.” He returned to fiddling with various knobs and levers.

I let out a sigh then an idea struck me. A sly smile began creeping onto my face as I turned to ask the Doctor “Hey, Doc? Would you like a pear?”

The blue door clicked as the locks were set in place behind me. I slowly rose to my hooves, rubbing the spot where I had been dropped on my head. “You’d think he’d have a better sense of humor with someone who shares some of his DNA along with the whole ‘two hearts’ thing.” I shrugged and began walking to the library to gather up the girls. “He's just jealous that he can't get sexy to purr.” A soldering iron impacted the back of my head followed by the sound of the door slamming shut again. "Jerk" I muttered, rubbing the back of my head.

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I found the girls giggling and working at Sweet Apple Acres. Each was using their talents to pick the apples from the trees. “Hey girls” I called as I stepped onto the property.

“Hey there partner.” Applejack greeted while walking over to me. “We were wondering where you had gone off to.”

A wide grin settled on my features. “I finished my house.” Several gasps came from our right making us turn.

The rest of the girls were standing there with the last of the apples. Pinkie spoke up first. “Means I get to throw you a welcome to Ponyville party and a house warming party!” She began bouncing around in circles, babbling about colors and party supplies.

Twilight seemed a little sad. “So… You’re leaving the library then?”

I put a hoof on her shoulder. “Yes, I really can’t impose any more. Besides, I think your couch will have a permanent dent if I sleep on it any longer.” I smiled at her. “Thank you for putting up with me though.” She smiled back and I turned to address the entire group. “Who want to see it?” They all agreed now that the work had been completed.

I lead them over to a clearing near Fluttershy’s cottage and the forest. Their blank stares showed that they were not impressed.

“Where is it then?” Rainbow asked from above.

I pulled a white cube covered in runes out of my bag. “Here it is.” It was tossed into the air and landed a fair distance away. I concentrated for a few moments and blasted the cube with a bolt of concentrated magic. The runes lit up as the spells laid into them activated making the cube split into a copy of itself. They watched in awe as the process repeated and the cubes built on each other until the last one set itself in place. A white, gothic style mansion stood in the clearing now, I knew the inside would match the one that stood as a guardian to my mind. I turned to the awestruck group behind me.

“Who wants a tour?”