The Chaos Within

by StapleCactus

Whole

"Ugh, my... everything..." I woke up feeling like a bear played beach-ball with my body. The cold stone floor didn't help either.

Something wasn't right. The last thing I remembered was exiting the Everfree Forest. Now, I found myself laying on smooth rock. As I sat up, walls and ceiling of even more stone met my vision. One wall was a translucent pink with iron bars behind it.

"I see. I'm in a cell. Well, might as well get out." Walking over to the pinkness, I gave it a test flick. Waves rippled across it. "Ah, a force-field. Well, that was dumb of them." Another flick, this one more purposeful, forced the shield to shatter. "AAUGH!" Pulse upon pulse of pain assaulted my mind, causing me to stumble back and trip over a chamberpot. I fell into a pile of hay, thankfully more fresh than I would assume of a dungeon.

"You are awake." Celestia's voice. It had to be Celestia didn't it?

"What gave it away? My shattering your weak shield or my screams of pain?" Disdain filled my voice as I crawled my way out of the itchy, dead grass. "Do tell."

"While I am surprised you broke that spell so easily, I am more curious as to who you are."

I resigned myself to lay upon the floor, the continuous pounding in my head doing nothing for my mood. "Do you not recognize your own knight?"

"You surely look like Dex, but your actions prove otherwise. Tell me, who are you?"

"Stop releasing that horrid Harmonic energy and maybe I'll tell you."

"You let on more than you think. The fact that it harms you is proof enough of what you are."

"Sinis," I said, still clutching my head. "Now stop that."

"So you can escape or prevent Dex from returning?"

I scowled, at both the name and the implications. "...Twilight."

"Sister, it is time." A voice came from elsewhere in the dungeon as I heard hoofsteps getting closer to my cell. "What happened to thine shield? Is it awake?"

Of course, Luna. Ugh... They are trying to kill me. I struggled to my feet and reached for my sword, finding it missing. "You took my sword!"

Celestia never once turned away from me as her sister entered my vision. "Of course, it is too dangerous to leave with you."

"Sister, it is my turn to watch. Nothing has changed."

"Very well, keep an eye on him. He calls himself Sinis, by the way." Celestia stood and began trotting back the way Luna came.

"I have no interest in knowing its name, but should ye not replace thine shield?"

"It is fine, Luna. Twilight will trade with you in a few hours."

As Celestia exited the dungeon, the amount of Harmony I felt lessened. Luna never spoke, only watching me for sudden movements. Her energy was weaker, but still kept me from doing anything as my headache continued to cripple me. I will... I... will...

I could stand no longer, collapsing upon the hard stone floor. "I... will... be..." Luna just stared as I glared back. "I..."

Darkness took me.

---

"Hello, Sinis. Welcome to my mind." Dexter. "Well isn't that interesting. You can think but there is no echo." Grrr...

I opened my eyes to see, not blackness as before, but scenery. With Dexter's free reign, he had managed to create a small world. He sat cross-legged, calm with closed eyes, upon pale green tatami mats inside a olden style Japanese room. The walls and ceiling were pure white with thin, wooden crossbeams. Surrounding the room was a wooden deck raised off of the ground. A cloudless, blue sky shone light, but cast no shadows. I found myself standing in a sand garden as the sound of a bamboo water fountain tapped against a rock. Smells of a nearby cherry blossom tree caught in my nose.

"Ugh, really, Dexter? How much more cliche can you get?"

"I really should thank you for taking control. I have calmed and become one with Harmony here."

"And I bet you haven't thought of what I said. Doesn't matter, your princesses will kill me if you don't take over."

"Kill you?" Dexter opened his eyes, shining bluer than ever before. "You don't seem to understand your own purpose. You do not have a body to kill."

"I am you! I can die just as you can if I am in control!"

"Do you not remember what I said moments ago? Welcome to MY mind."

"It is ours, not yours."

"You are a manifestation of chaos within me. My body and mind were always mine."

"So you will just cast me out?"

"No, I have learned what you did and how you are. Accepting chaos is not as I once thought."

"Don't think I don't know what chaos is!"

"What do you think it is?"

"The opposite of Harmony, pure randomness."

Dexter sighed. "Return to me, and we will be one again. I cast you out once; I will not do so again."

"As if. I can be free and gain control again."

"You don't have a choice."

---

Chaos and Harmony. Humanity cannot be one without the other. I have learned that during my stay in the void. When one grows too strong, the mind fractures, distorting the truth. As I realized this, I knew what had to be done. I know not why I talked to Sinis, only that I enjoyed the chat.

He lost form just as I did in that moment. Dark and light clouds of energy swirled and mixed, becoming that which we were, a gray whole. As I returned to my human self, the void of my mind changed.

The sky turned to stars, millions and millions of stars and galaxies. Blue, purple, and black formed the backdrop for them to shine on. Lights, like those I saw the first time I met Sinis, danced across the portrait, providing a contrast between calm infinity and chaotic endlessness. It was beautiful in its complexity and simplicity. As much as I wanted to stay, I had to wake up.

"Goodbye Dexter. Goodbye Sinister."

---

Chaos is the theory of everything and nothing. If one were to think charity is good, another would think it is bad. All of reality is true, and yet untrue. Harmony is the theory of serenity and order. Regardless of right and wrong, true and untrue, all reality follows a path. The people of Equestia did not know this at the beginning of things and, through their own misunderstandings, the forces of this world were named Chaos and Harmony. When I learned of these two forces and joined them, I found truth, and it led to power.

The power I possessed did not come without limitations. Chaos and Harmony needed to be in sync, in harmony. Like two weights on a scale, one would get stronger while the other weakened. A large amount of Harmony allowed me to see order, with no way to control it. On the other side, too much Chaos created unlimited choices, but I could not see the truth. Sinis was proof of Chaotic overflow and when I brought him into myself, I was not in equilibrium.

"Ah! He's awake!" Twilight's voice reached my ears. "Who are you now?"

Who? Heh. The migraine Sinis dealt with was gone, allowing me to stand and look out the bars to Twilight. "Hello, Twilight. I'm whole."

She looked back at me with joyful shock. "Really? Oh thank Celestia, I didn't know if it would work. Are you okay, Dex?"

"Hmm, for the sake of simplicity, yes. I am Dex the Shield."

Comments

[StapleCactus]

I'm sure you guys have questions as to what happened and what's going on. I decided to split this chapter for some reason or another. The next will detail what was going on, remember that Twilight knows and Dex has the answers.

If you have questions, let me know. I may add them to the chapter since I may have missed something that needs explaining.

[Luigi-fan 470]

Give the sword a new power, lose sword between chapters.

[StapleCactus]

818919

Yup, cause I like messing with ya.

[Menoshe]

Yin-yang type stuff? Seems legit.

[StapleCactus]

829503

Reading it all in one quick go eh? Thanks! And yeah, yin-yang, 'every action has an equal and opposite reaction,' that kinda thing.

[Lazaro Sol]

Interesting philosophical approach on harmony and chaos I think I tipped the scales in chaos abit tho