Hoof and Claw-Claw and Hoof.
The air under the Golden Oaks Library was charged with magic, devices hummed and clicked as the arcane power drove them to new heights of calculation. Vials of different chemicals bubbled and simmered, before being mixed, changed and analysed. In the centre of this creative dance of power the world's newest alicorn ordered this complex dance of discovery.
With steady levitation and a critical eye the purple pony slowly tipped the ingredient into an awaiting beaker, carefully produced glass stirring wand and noted down the changes in the colour, texture and magical properties of the new concoction. The liquid within slowly transformed from its clear green to a cloudy pink as the two compounds mixed together under the tender care of the methodical pony.
It was not uncommon for Twilight Sparkle to secret herself away for hours on end when a particular notion or idea would grab her mind. It was obvious to every pony who knew Twilight and her over active mind strove for order and understanding. Spike her faithful dragon assistant had not seen the mare for more than a few minutes each day for breakfast as she poured over this latest mystery that had caught her attention.
Twilight was close to a breakthrough, she just knew it. Everything she had read pointed to a simple solution to the problem, that was still beyond her grasp vexed her terribly. Books were amazing things and Twilight wanted to keep them that way. Her enemy this day was time once again, time and use. She despaired as it stole the life from her books, its touch would slowly weather their beautiful covers and Twilight shuddered to think of the harm done by those who borrowed them.
She had a mission, nay a quest to find a way of keeping her books in prime condition. Twilight had tried locking them away from clumsy hooves, but the futility of such plan a became clear after the mayor gently ushered Twilight away from the magical vault she was constructing and explained, contrary to Twilight's belief that the Library wasn't just for her own use.
Spike watched this current obsession unfold from a safe distance, cooking pot helmet and cushion armour in place. This had been triggered by an honest mistake by Daisy only a few days ago. The innocent mare, not knowing her peril had come to the Golden Oak to find a simple tome to deal with a strange breed of root fly. Twilight had only been to happy to help, presenting a number of books with possible solutions. Everything had been fine until Daisy went to leave with the suggested work.
"Oh you can't possibly mean to take it with you, I only just finished cataloguing the herbology section and that would throw off my schedule. I need to reorder the 'magical dynamics collection' and if you remove 'Pests and Precautions', then it will throw off my system," Twilight had informed Daisy with a slight eye twitch.
The pink pony took a hesitant step back from twilight and produced a brittle smile, "But princess, I need to solve this problem quickly and I have to get back home, can't I just borrow it just this once?"
Twilight visibly shuddered at the word 'princess', "No-no-no, you miss understand, I need to make sure everything is perfect, as 'princess' I have a duty to bring order to the realm. If you take that book away then I can't finish sorting out herbology. I simply can't allow it, as I said it will throw off months of preparations."
Daisy looked blankly at Twilight; her mane ‘poinged’ as a number of hairs curled out of place and she couldn't fail to notice the glazed look in Twilight's eyes. "Um, begging your pardon princess, but aren't Libraries meant to lend out their books?"
The 'princess' word caused another spasm to flow over Twilight again and her teeth began to grind. "Why of course they do, b-b-but this time I need that book to stay here: I have a schedule to work with you see, otherwise two years from now I will find myself short of time to order Spikes birthday present."
Spike shook his head: This problem had been getting slowly worse for weeks after Twilight became a princess. At first his dear friend and big sister had enjoyed exploring the new power of flight, all the new options open to her, but this had been eclipsed by Twilight's growing concern over her royal duties. Spike feared that book hoarding was just another symptom of that underlying problem.
Daisy, rightfully concerned made a move for the door, but still clutched the book in her hoof. In a flash of magic, Twilight yanked the book back and the unthinkable had happened: One of her beloved books tore apart. It had been a simple accident, but Twilight's world came crashing down to the sound of ripping paper.
Daisy had been fine, but Twilight had thrown herself into her new 'quest' with vigour, leaving Spike to deal with the day to day running of the Library, which in some ways came as a relief for him. This kept Twilight out from under his feet and she only needed the occasional sandwich to keep her happy.
Here and now, Spike watched Twilight's futile efforts to keep her books 'safe forever' and sighed. He was hoping Twi would snap out of this latest mental break down soon. Her friends have of course rushed to her aid, but to no avail. None of them knew the first thing about being a princess and though, Rarity, Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had all done their best to re-balance Twilight in their own way, all had met with only limited success, before Twilight would immerse herself in her work once more.
Spike would have sought help from the other princesses, but they were all in delicate negotiations at the moment. Twilight's change had given rise to more than a few political ramifications. Spike didn't understand it all, nor did he even try to, he just concentrated on making his big sister the best honey grass sandwich he could and resolved to deal with the other possible problems later. Spike was determined to be supportive and watch over Twilight as she got this out of her system.
As he carried his latest creation down the stairs to the buzzing laboratory, Spike saw that Twilight was still in the throes of her work. A number of burnt, mangled and ruined 'test' pamphlets were scattered about the floor. The small dragon looked out from his improvised armour at the host of destroyed reading material.
"Hi Twi, I made you a special this time," Spike informed Twilight with a nervous cough.
"Mhm" was the only reply he received from Twilight, her focus totally on the reaction taking place before her. With care she dipped another pamphlet into the cloudy mixture and watched its results. Nothing could be seen inside the beaker, but the room filled with the smell of bananas and mothballs.
Twilight sighed as she withdrew the paper using her magic, noting how it was now covered in fine layers of pink fur."Urgh, why didn't it work?" She called in frustration and tossed the paper away, which upon landing began to crawl away like a caterpillar.
Spike, unperturbed by this strange sight neatly stepped over the retreating fuzz and placed the plate next to Twilight on her desk. "Honey grass surprise, I thought I would try something new," Spike's little fanged mouth forming a brittle smile.
Twilight just gave another "mhm", closely studying the formula she was quickly rewriting, "Add the powdered 'Poison Joke' after the ground crystal, stir anti-clock wise four times, add 'Purtoc' Root' and stir clock wise three times....." The list went on and on and Spike’s head hurt after the first few lines.
"Well I..er hope you like it Twilight, just call me if there is anything you need and your number one assistant will be here right away," With that Spike bowed and hurried back up to the relative safety of the main floor.
Without even looking at the contents, Twilight levitated the sandwich up to her mouth for a bite, "You know, he really is a dedicated little reptile isn't he." The voice oozed out of the air and caused Twilight to lose focus. The floating collection of items dipped in their lazy path around the basement for only a fraction of a second and Twilight narrowed her eyes, she knew that voice.
"Discord, what are you doing here?" Twilight asked in an impatient voice, she didn't bother looking around, the draconequus could be anywhere and she wasn't in the mood for his games right now.
"Why you wound me Twilight, I came to see how you were doing of course; Fluttershy was in such a state after you threw her out over nothing, I came to see if I could help 'fix' things. It took a moment for Twilight to discover that the voice was coming from the sandwich. Looking down she saw that the bread had sprouted an antler and goat horn: It seemed to be looking at her without any eyes.
"I didn't throw her out Discord, I just asked her politely to leave me in peace as I am doing very important research," Twilight replied with a defensive manner, "I would like to ask you to do the same, I have no time for your nonsense now Discord."
"Aww but your friends are all worried about you Twilight, you have been giving them all the cold shoulder for a while now, ever since you became a 'princess'," the sandwich said, with what may have actually been genuine concern. The word ‘princess’ caused Twilight to shiver again.
"Go away Discord," Twilight said in a frustrated tone, lowering the sandwich and grabbing a number of vials to begin her experiment anew.
"Now I know there is something troubling you 'princess', it's not like you to be so rude to anyone," This time the grinning face of the mad creature looked out at Twilight from the cloudy pink failure she was about to dispose of, "Besides, how could I go when you’re achieving some truly fascinating results here?"
The pink furry pamphlet rose into view in a glowing aura and did it's best to lick Twilight with a small tongue. Twilight ruffled her wings and narrowed her eyes once again.
"Go-way-Discord, you’re causing everything here to go out of balance, no wonder this experiment went wrong," She said through gritted teeth.
"Aww, how can you say that this 'little fella' is wrong?" Discord flashed into existence and the tall creature had to stoop to fit his body into the basement. He was holding the 'fuzzy' in his lion paw and stroked it with his other mismatched limb as the small furry bundle made a strange 'cooing' sound.
"You're making some fine chaos and didn't invite me? Shame on you 'princess', you know how much I enjoy such things and I am always happy to lend a claw," Discord was curled around the various items in Twilight's lab, being sure not to disrupt anything.
Twilight's eye twitched again, before she finally lost her temper. "Discord, get out!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, her horn glowed brighter before the various chemicals and magical items she had been supporting were momentarily forgotten. With a resounding crash they all smashed to the floor at once and there was a massive cloud of multi-coloured smoke and a sizzle of arcane lightning.
Spike heard the commotion from down stairs and rushed away from his cooking, all ideas of desert banished from his mind. That was an explosion and his heart leaped into his throat fearing what Twilight might have done. His adopted sister had been prone to impressive feats of magical power before, but as an alicorn who knew what she might do in the state she was in.
As he skidded out of the kitchen Spike saw the door of the basement had been blown off it’s hinges and smoke pouring out. The haze was coloured in every hue of the rainbow and smelt strongly of mothballs.
"Twilight, Twilight are you alright?" Spike managed to call out before his lungs filled with smoke and he began coughing incessantly.
"I'm okay Spike, just had a small accident, because someone wouldn’t go away." Twilight called up, but Spike thought she sounded odd; her voice had a deeper resonance to it. He dashed over to the window and threw it open, letting in some fresh air. Waving his claw back and forth, Spike took a huge breath before heading back to the basement's door frame. The portal was scorched and soot blackened while the drifting smoke from below obscured his view with it’s rainbow haze.
Spike feared what he might see, but was determined to make sure Twilight was alright and so pushed on regardless. The basement was a mess and smashed glass crunched under foot as Spike wondered around blindly. All of a sudden he saw a large familiar shape looming before him.
"Discord what are you doing here?" Spike cried out, that silhouette all too well known to the small dragon, fumbling in the chaos Spike managed to lay hold of something solid from the floor and brandished it before him. "Twilight where are you?" Spike called out in worry, "Did Discord hurt you?"
The sound of Twilight coughing could be heard, but it still sounded wrong to Spike, who put it down to the muffling effects of the smoke.
"Hang on spike, I'll clear this then we can see what we're doing," Twilight's distorted voice called out, there was a sound of fingers being snapped and the smoke was gone, only to be replaced by to every one’s amazement, hot dogs.
The rain of food lasted for only a second before the room was revealed to Spike. The serpentine form of Discord dominated the centre of the basement and Spike shrank back even as he desperately looked about for Twilight. His sister and friend was nowhere to be seen and as his gaze travelled up to Discord's face his mouth dropped open in disbelief.
"Spike, what's the matter?" Twilight called out, but her voice still sounded wrong, after moment Twilight also realised that something was very odd. She had always been taller than spike, but now the dragon truly seemed tiny before her. As Twilight attempted to stand up straight, she banged her head on the ceiling of the basement causing her to 'growl' in frustration.
Twilight raised a hoof to her head and then froze, no not a hoof but a claw! She looked down at Spike and saw the confusion and fear in his eyes. "Spike?" Was all Twilight could think to say as she only began to notice what Spike had instantly seen. Twilight's voice sounded wrong it was deeper and had odd inflections in it.
"Twilight?" Spike asked, his face trembling with disbelief.
It was at that moment that a pile of wreckage from the ruined laboratory shifted and a groan was heard from within. Both Twilight and Spike turned to see the mound stand up and shake it's self off to reveal a grey and brown mottled pegasus. Twilight looked closer and to her mounting astonishment she saw the stallion wasn't a pegasus as she had first thought. Twilight’s mouth hung open as she registered the long horn sprouting from the pony’s skull.
The newly revealed pony shook his head to clear the tangled brown mane from his eyes. He looked to startled pair and raised an eyebrow. "What, haven't you ever seen a creature of chaos before?" He asked in an annoyed way before seeing the monstrous form of a fellow draconequus looking at him: No, looking down at him.
The draconequus before him was female, she had all the wrong things in the right places and her mixed hues of colours were all shades of purple and black. "Well isn't this a turn up for the books?" Discord said before he too noticed his voice was different. He raised a claw to his throat out of habit and found a solid mass strike his neck. After spluttering from the case of 'self winding' Discord turned his yellow irises down and stared at a grey hoof before him.
"Oh come now, you must be joking right?" Discord said to the world at large. He looked back up to the staring dragon and draconequus, the confusion in their eyes mirroring his own.
Twilight’s eyes were grey with purple miss matched dots for pupils and both were glaring at Discord in a furious manner as she shouted at Discord, her voice making the room shake and a number of the hotdogs sprouted small wings before leaping up to fly lazily in the air, "Discord, what have you done? Change things back right this instant, or by Celestia I'll,....I will".
Discord nodded and went to snap his fingers to change them back, but all that happened was that his horn shone a pale grey and he vanished. There was a jumbled sound from a cupboard from behind Twilight and she spun around to see what had happened only for her now much larger frame to send the few unbroken items in the room crashing to the ground. Twilight leaned back in dismay only to bang her head on the ceiling.
The wooden doors of the cupboard rattled for a moment before coming undone to reveal the upside down form of an alicorn discord upside down looking out from between his back legs. Despite all that had happened Spike couldn't help but crack a smile and before long he was rolling on the floor holding his sides.
Twilight glared at her number one assistant, before turning back to the grey pony before her, "Discord, what have you done? Turn me back this instant!" Her voice was edged with a growl.
After a complicated amount of shuffling and straining sounds Discord finally righted himself, "It seems my dear that, I am unable to do any such thing." The words caused Twilight’s heart to fall and she looked pleadingly at Discord this time.
"You mean I'm stuck like this?" Twilight asked, dread filling her heart.
"You and me both it seems." Discord said,
"But I can't be a draconequus; I'm Celestia's faithful student and good pony, not some crazy miss-mash collection of random monsters," She cried, chocolate tears began to well up and fall to the ground, before they could land they turned into marbles which bounced before rolling away.
"Now that's a bit harsh, I happen to think you make a very striking as a draconequus," Discord assured Twilight and it was true, if he had been in his wrong shape again he would have thought Twilight very pretty indeed.
"That isn't helping Discord," Twilight replied as she mastered herself once more. She would never admit it but Discord didn't look bad as a pony either. Shaking her now much larger head Twilight put ‘that’ idea right out of her mind. Focus Twilight, you can do this, she told herself.
"So can I turn us back then?" Twilight said after a moment.
Discord shrugged at this, "I have no idea."
"What do you mean you have no idea? You turned me into this thing now show me how to fix it," Twilight commanded.
"Now don't blame everything on me, not all random acts of chaos are my fault no matter how much I wish they were, but I can honestly say that I didn't cause this," Discord attempted to wave an admonishing finger at Twilight which only produced an odd hoof wobble, "It seems your experiments have had some unwanted side effects Twilight."
She growled again, and Discord could see how truly intimidating he must have been. The way Twilight loomed over him was very disconcerting.
"You're saying this is my fault?" Twilight bunched both her paw and claw into fists, which only caused a bundle of flowers to appear grasped in each.
"Not at all, I am simply pointing out that accidents do happen, why I would want to be stuck as a pony of all things urgh," Even as a pony Discord had a condescending tone, but to Twilight's surprise she thought she detected an undercurrent of unease now. Discord was worried as well and Twilight suspected that for once he was telling the truth.
"So that's all you have to say about this, that we're both stuck as we are?" Twilight asked in a defeated tone.
Discord nodded, "Well until you figure out how to control the chaos in you, or I learn to control order in me I believe that may be the case," He was studying his cutie mark, which seemed to be a picture of burning ice.
Spike had stopped laughing as the truth of the situation sunk in, "Surely Celestia or Luna would know what to do? The hope in his voice made Twilight smile.
"They may do spike, but they’re not back for three weeks, magical communication if prohibited under the negotiations treaty and by the time a courier could reach them, they would be on their way back any way," Twilight's face screwed up in a way that Spike knew even if she was a draconequus now. Her mind was working things out and didn't like what conclusions they were coming too.
"It may be were going to have to just ride this one out Spike, It's only a few weeks, what could go wrong in that time?" Twilight reasoned to herself. She sat down on her second try, her new legs not so differently built from her own natural ones. The tail gave Twilight some trouble however. She was forced to lift this appendage and let it wave back and forth. As Twilight sat there and continued to work out what to do, her tail coiled and spun as if with a mind of it’s own.
"That's all well and good Twilight, I trust you," Spike said as his attention turned to Discord who was trying to pick up a broken chemical vial with a hoof with no success, "It's him I am worried about, who knows what he might get up to."
"Hmm your right Spike", Twilight agreed as Discord failed for the third time to pick up the glass with his hoof. He couldn't seem to get the hang of how ponies held things.
"We will just have to keep an eye on him too and make sure he doesn't do anything too dangerous. We need somewhere for him to stay, me too for that matter," Twilight said: Her shock at the situation be subsumed the urge to plan and organise, "I can't stay here like this, the other ponies will never understand."
There was another thoughtful pause and Twilight snapped her fingers "Aha, I am sure Fluttershy will be okay with him staying with her, she's his friend after all."
Spike didn't look convinced, "I don't know Twilight, that could cause some very odd questions to be asked."
"Nonsense Spike, I'll just explain everything to the mayor, she's an intelligent pony,” Twilight said, sounding much happier now she had a planned course of action, "Um I will just say he's a distant cousin of Celestia's."
Spike still looked doubtful, "If you say so Twilight, but you can't just walk up to the town hall looking like you do and I think you need to learn to control your magic before you do."
Twilight gave Spike a confused look and then followed his gaze to the floor where all the hotdogs had begun dancing a merry jig. Twilight looked at her claw with wide eyes as she realised it had done chaos magic with her knowing it.
"You're of course right Spike, first I need you to write some letters to the others, they will need to know what’s going on," Twilight paused for a moment as an interesting idea occurred to her. "You know what; I think I should write it."
Spike watched Twilight snake around the room, her movements were far from the graceful as way Discord normally managed, but she didn’t break anything else this time. Twilight would need much more practice with her increased size and new centre of gravity before she was confident. After a few stumbles she eventually rummaged in a few draws and produced out a quill along with some parchment. "Right," Twilight announced in a triumphant way.
Spike watched Twilight sit down and begin her first attempts at writing with her own 'hands'. He dragon felt a twinge of unease again, that had always been his job and he felt he had somehow been cheated. Spike turned away from Twilight and watched Discord once again.
The alicorn had given up trying to pick up items with his hoof and now looked up, eyes almost crossing at his horn. "So this is the business end right, how do I make it work?"
Spike looked confused, "didn't you already use it, I mean you teleported into a cupboard just now?"
"So I did," Discord replied and his face screwed up in concentration, which reminded Spike oddly of Twilight again. After a short moment his horn flickered into life.
The effect was impressive and very unpredictable, with a flash the broken glass splintered apart, flew back together again before vanishing from sight. There was the tinkle of smashing glass that echoed from the floor above and Discord turned his mad eyes towards the other two.
Twilight had craned her long neck around to see what Discord was up to and the embarressed alicorn shrugged before Twilight's purple eyed stare and simply said, "Ooopsie"