//------------------------------// // Chaotic Encounters // Story: N.C.I.S The Magic Chronicals // by typervader //------------------------------// 3 hours earlier, in Equestria Discord was pacing around the room he was in; literally, he was walking around the outside of the chamber while inside it, waiting for his friends and the princesses to show up. He had finally managed to stabilize the fluctuations of left in the wake of Twilight’s accidental teleportation with chaos magic, locking in both the dimension and location Twilight was and sent a piece of parchment with a tracker attached to it for retrieval at a later date. Another thing he did was make the letter look like it was just a blank sheet of parchment should there be a member of the constitutional dimension in proximity to her, the only exception would be if they already knew she was alien to that dimension. Discord only needed to wait for a few more minutes before the rest showed up, having timed it just right to get hit by the door just as it was opened. “Discord! Are you alright!” Fluttershy exclaimed as she rushed over to the downed draconequus to check for injuries. Everyone else just rolled their eyes at the ‘subtle’ attempt at getting closer to Fluttershy from Discord. “Of course my dear Fluttershy. I’m as tough as nails!” Discord said before letting off a grunt of mock-pain and sat down again. “Then again, I have been out in the rain for over a millennium, so I’m a bit rusty.” He said with an obvious fake tone. ‘Oh brother, this is even worse than when he thought to give me a bouquet of poison joke was a good first date present.’ Celestia thought as she and the others watched the poorly thought out flirting Discord was attempting while poor Fluttershy was completely oblivious to the flirting. ‘I don’t know whether to laugh at how bad he is trying to flirt, or cry at how clueless Fluttershy is at being romanced’. Having watched the poor attempt at romance long enough, Celestia cleared her throat and said what the others were wondering as well. “Discord, while it's nice to know that you are ‘feeling better,'” She said while hiding the smirk under her mask, “But would you mind getting to the point of why you called us here in the first place.” Discord for his part managed to hide the small blush the adorned his muzzle fast enough to not be seen. “Ahem, yes, quite right,” He said while getting up. “You see while searching through the multiverse, I stumbled upon a curious signal coming from a small pocket dimension that has multiple dimensions of its own. That by itself wouldn’t be much of concern for me to look into, but this signal was laced with chaos magic... “ At this, he switched to a more serious expression before continuing, “..And Twilight’s.” As soon as those words left his mouth, the room exploded; ’leaving nothing but a smoldering crater and ashes’ Pinkie had a strange look on her face and appeared distracted by something. She quickly brought herself back to reality when she noticed that everyone was looking at her with odd looks. She blushed and tried to shrink down to hide the embarrassment on her face. “O..kay, that was strange even for Pinkie, but are ya'll saying that you managed ta find Twilight in another dimension?” Applejack questioned, looking hopeful again after three months of fruitless searching the Badlands. “Yes, but there is a small problem. While I was able to find the dimension quickly enough, the signal was too degraded to be able to bring Twilight back the same way she got there.”Discord said solemnly, hanging his head at that uselessness he felt in trying to help his friend come home. “It’s okay Discord.” Fluttershy told him, hugging him, “You did what you could.” “Is there a way to bring her back?” Celestia asked him, hopeful. “Honestly, I’m not too sure yet. Chaos magic is hard. Even I don't know all there is to know about it,” Discord said, still sad he wasn’t able to do more. “However, I think I am able to send her a letter, and based on the last spell she used, help her out in some way.” They soon all came together and wrote Twilight a letter, and before Discord sent it off, he added his own little touch. He smirked as he sent the letter off in a puff of wind and light, leaving them in the room. present The trainers looked around at the papers scattered around the room, trying to find the girl, who was still seemed to be unaffected by what just happened. They looked around after the blinding flash of light, not seeing the girl at all, for where the girl was standing was a large pile of papers, but the girl was nowhere in sight. “What was all that?! How could a hurricane just spontaneously happen in a closed building?” Thomas yelled, confused to the events that occurred since meeting their new cadet, “And where is that girl, something tells me that she was behind all of this. When I get my hands on her, I’m gonna-” Whatever Thomas was going to do to this girl would be forever unknown when Gwen placed a hand over his mouth to keep him from talking. “Shh, listen,” Was all Gwen said while looking around the room for something. Judging by her reaction, Thomas figured she was trying to hear something and took a calming breath, and closed his eyes to focus on whatever was trying to listen. It was faint, but after a few seconds, he heard what sounded like talking coming from around the large pile of scattered papers. After looking over to Gwen, they both nodded and crept closer to where the talking was originating from. Being as quiet as possible Thomas and Gwen strained to make out what was being said. “--Only way to get you home, but we can do it, you just have to blend in a little longer till we find the right spell,” The voice was male, almost like John De Lancie from Star Trek, and sounded like it was coming out of a recording. “Hope we can find the right spell to get me home soon,” That was the voice of the girl, Talia Sparks, but who was she talking to? “Thanks for helping with this Discord, I didn’t want to have to rely solely on my magic alone,” Talia said. Thomas looked at Gwen with a puzzled look on his face. Magic? Spells? Blend in? It seemed like Sergeant Morris was right when he had said that this girl was not like other ‘Humans’. Before springing into action, they were startled when this ‘Discord’ person spoke again. “By the way Twilight, when you see Thomas and Gwen could you tell them that they need to work on the sneaking. They’re just as bad as AJ and RD. Anyway, the spell you need to blend in is at the bottom of this scroll. I enchanted it so that all you have to do is touch the spell to know how to cast it flawlessly. At least as flawlessly as you can with limited knowledge.” At those words, both instructors froze when Discord said their names, looked at each other, then bolted towards the pile of papers before Talia could get away. When they reached the papers they jumped to where the girl was supposedly crouching, but strangely enough they both passed straight through the papers clearing them away instead. As they turned around to try and apprehend her, the froze again. Instead of the human they met earlier, there staring back at them was a purple creature that had both a horn and wings on what looked like a pony’s body. The creature was a dark lavender with a pair of majestic looking wings. Thomas himself was about 6 ft 3 in's yet this creature came up to about halfway up to Thomas’s waist. It’s mane and tail were both a moderate sapphire blue with mild violet and bright rose streaks going through the middle, just like Talia’s. The creatures horn was about four inches long and had a spiral groove going along the entire length. They all just stared at this weird creature, confused as to what was going on. This thing looked so much like Talia that they could almost be the same thing. “Oh buck,” Twilight said, seeing her form was back to normal in front of the three. “I can explain this.” “It talks, and it sounds like Talia. What in the world is going on!” Thomas yelled, almost smacking himself to make him wake up from this dream. “I was RIGHT!” “Talia?” Aaron asked, hoping it was her. “Yep, Talia “Twilight” Sparks. Well, where do I begin.” Twilight sighed as she thought about what to say to them. “How about start with that crazy wind?” Gwen asked, still thinking she was just seeing things but seemed the most calm of the three. “Well, I believe that this is the easier way to explain this. This is all a dream,” Twilight explained, hoping to make them forget they saw anything. From the perfect deadpan looks they were giving her, she knew that they didn’t believe her. Heck, if it happened to her, she wouldn’t believe her either. “Yeah, I figured that wouldn’t work.” Twilight sighed to herself. “Well, the wind I can’t tell you because I, myself don’t know what caused it, though if I had to guess, I would have to think that was Discord having fun with a sense of flare.” “You’re going to have to hold off on explaining who this ‘Discord’ person later,” A voice coming from behind Thomas chimed in, causing those in the room to jump and turn to the sound. “Right now I want to know how you managed to stop time beyond this room and why every cadet that has come in and left have no memory of coming in here?” The face of Sergeant Morris was set in a stern look waiting for an explanation from Twilight. Twilight was confused for a moment until she remembered what Discord told her. ” Twilight as long as you are close to these letters I send you, I can warp reality around a little while to help keep you safe. I, unfortunately, can’t help getting you home through that method, but I can contribute to making it feel like home while you’re there until we can find a way to get you home.” “That would probably be thanks to Discord. The letters he sends will let him control the reality for about a minute, or until it's no longer needed.” Twilight stated, trying to keep from shrinking away out of fear of having to run and hide. “So, that is out of my control.” “You have mentioned this ‘Discord’ multiple times, who is he?” Morris asked her. “Well, he’s sorta the Spirit of Chaos back at home,” Twilight answered, sheepishly. “I guess since you saw me, I should tell you what is going on.” Twilight sighed as she said that. She was doing a terrible job at hiding herself, and she knew it. At this rate, she was going to be found out, unless Discord had a plan of some kind. “And, I guess I should tell you the full story to Morris.” Twilight soon started to explain her tale, from how she arrived and met Gibbs, to meeting all of them. This went on for a while and although time was stopped, time still flew by. Soon, Twilight remembered she still had to leave and remembered what Discord said. She took the scroll out, and touched the spell, soon learning how to do it. “Anyway, I’m going to re-apply my disguise with another spell. I hope you won’t tell anypon-er I mean anyone else about me. Let’s just get back to the training.” Twilight said, casting the spell to turn back into a human, and hopefully, works better than her last time. When the magic was complete, Twilight felt completely different than before, and for the most part, she looked the same. However, once again, she was naked. Morris quickly ran to cover up the girl from the two men in the room, and she was confused. “What?” She asked. “You're naked!” He exclaimed. “So? I’m always naked back home.” Twilight said, dumbfounded about why being naked was bad. “What's a big deal? She is just a horse on two legs and looks..like..a human. Oh.” Gwen trailed off as she soon saw what the problem was. The awkwardness of Twilight being naked hitting her full force. “I’m actually a pony.” Twilight said with enough deadpan to make Maud Pie proud back home. “Exactly! A pony that has the ability to look like a human.” Morris added. Aaron just covered his eyes, and Thomas just stared, soon making this awkward. “So, I get to see a naked chick and not get slapped. Worth it!” He said, happy that this happened, even if she wasn’t human. He still got slapped after a few seconds by Aaron who then went to find a spare set of clothes for Twilight. “Just you wait, I’m going to see titties without getting slapped one of these days.” Thomas pouted, standing off to the side before setting his eyes on Talia again. As he looked at her for a few seconds more, he noticed some off about her back. When he walked around the back of Twilight, he blanched at the sight of two massive scars almost running down the full of her back. “JEEZ! What happened to your back!” Thomas exclaimed, feeling ill as both of her scars looked like she had been set on fire, then had the fire put out with acid and finally cleaned with sandpaper. Twilight suddenly went rigid when Thomas mentioned the scars, trying to forget the event that caused them. “W-What S-Scars?” She trembled, seeing the events that caused them clearly again in her mind. flashback “Mommy! Help! It burns! Make it stop, please make it stop!” A young Twilight screamed as her magic circuits were going out of control. end flashback Twilight was shaken out of her memories by a pair of hands hung her tightly. “Shh, it’s alright nothing’s going to hurt you here.” The voice of Aaron said comforting Twilight while wrapping a jacket around her shoulders. The others who were watching this moved over to a corner of the room so as to not eavesdrop on what must have been a painful memory. “Anything that can cause scars like those is something Ah never what to imagine. Whatever happened to this girl must have been when she was very young if it caused her to shake like a leave in a hurricane,” Gwen said looking at this girl in a new light and saw something in her that reminded her of herself. “Trauma like that stays with you for life, so it’s no wonder she was trying to hide. The only question now, though… is what else is she trying to hide from?” After finally calming down and getting some new clothes, Twilight, and the others sat down to go over what was to happen in the coming weeks. For three weeks Twilight would train in unarmed self-defense, physical training, and forensic and detective work. The first week will be spent with Aaron learning the ins and out of case work, from processing a crime scene to understanding how the victim was killed. The following week will be spent in physical training with Thomas and Gwen. Thomas would be handling the running and stamina portion of the training while Gwen would manage the defensive and offensive part. The final week will be spent with Morris learning the how-to of all the firearms she would need to use and identify in the line of duty. With Twilight no longer having to constantly use her magic to stay human could now use that time to find new ways to use her magic in daily operations, and still, have the time to try getting home. Before anyone could leave the building, another gusting of wind blew around the room, though not as hard as a hurricane again, more like a strong, quick breeze. Twilight quickly grabbed the new letter with her magic and began reading it. As she read on, though, her face went from confused to concern to finally scared. Dear Twilight, This letter is not a good one as I fear we came across some startling news. Without you here, I'm afraid harmony is starting to break down. All the other elements of harmony are there, but without you, the magic to activate it is absent. In response to this, I have asked Discord to do something drastic, as I fear if it were to continue, then even if you make do make it back, harmony may very well be dead. Twilight almost dropped the letter as she read those words. She steeled herself and continued reading, hoping some good new came from it. Don't worry too much, though, Twilight. Discord says he has a way to at least slow the degradation of harmony long enough for you and us to find a way to bring you back. I'm sorry to say this Twilight, but this will be the only letter you'll receive from anypony other than Discord for however long it takes you to return when he stops time from flowing for this dimension. Be safe Twilight. Your friend and fellow princess, Celestia. P.S Pinkie wanted me to tell you to make sure to watch out for a particular type of 'slap' when you're talking to 'Gibbs.' Sometimes I think that pony has a screw loose.[/size=7.5] With the last words of the letter read, Twilight dropped to her knees with a thousand yard stare, as if all the life had left her. She had to wonder what was in store for Equestria once she returned if Discord stopping time would only slow the degradation of harmony rather than stop it. Will Equestria even be the same when she returned? All she could do now was train and hope that the training will be enough.