//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: The Magic Labyrinth of I.M. Meen 
// by Tom of Bedlam 
//------------------------------//

	...The elements sat round the Library table in the pulsating red light, Fluttershy had her hooves over her ears and the rest looked rather disgruntled. Rarity pulled her face into a saccharine grin and turned to the Lord of Chaos "oh Discord, could you be a dear and SILENCE THAT INFERNAL RACKET!?" 

The Draconequus blinked in consideration "but everyone needs to be alerted that this is a crisis." 

Rainbow Dash leapt angrily into the air and splayed her arms in frustration "we're all here, we're all alerted: turn it off!" Discord huffed and snapped a claw, the siren cut off abruptly with a record scratch, he then gravely rose from his chair.

"Ponies, I have called you here because Alicorn Twilight Sparkle and her apprentice vanished less than an hour ago at the exact moment I sensed a massive surge of chaos magic. After sniffing about as far as I can tell the cause of these events is this book..." he leaned down down to Fluttershy ear and whispered "...how am I doing? I've never got to be serious before" 

She gave back a winning smile and purred "your doing great, but um...what's so odd about this book?"

Pinkie produced a rare frown "I'll tell you what's a going on, as sure as pudding Pinkie knows a big meanie when she sees it, that book is big fat grumpy pants; it even has I'm mean on the cover!" She declared waving a hoof dramatically at the small object.

"Yea right..." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes sardonically, but she was silenced by a lions paw prodding into her mouth "no no, the crazy one is correct my aggressive friend, there is something wrong about this book" 

Rainbow Dash uncorked her mouth and said "wrong how?"

The Lord of Chaos turned to the farm pony who was glaring daggers at the object of discussion "Applejack, apples are your thing right?"

"Ah' would say so"

"And you know what an apple smells like?"

"I recon' I could tell an apple's breed by smell alone"

"Precisely! And you can tell if an apples going bad right?"

"Course I do hun', could pick it out of a bushel"

Discord pointed an accusatory talon down at the tome "then in my official capacity as Lord of Chaos I declare that that chaos is rotten!" An ethereal pipe organ played a horror chord. 

The others looked at each other confused "not to questioning your credentials but how does chaos go rotten?" Rarity inquired, 

Discord tapped his fang in contemplation "well chaos, true chaos is neither good nor evil; it is equally likely to create or destroy, heal or hurt. This...thing however only hurts which is a cardinal sin of Chaos magic, it's predictable and quiet boring."

"OK, so I recon' we should contact the princess and find out who this I.M.Meen fella' is..." interjected Applejack "...In the meantime, and I can't believe I'm sayin' this, Discord as he's feelin' helpful today should see if he can figure out what the book did with Twilight and Starlight, agreed?" 

There was a round of nods and Discord leapt up in the air clutching his talon and paw together "ooo all this being serious is so exciting and suspenseful...oh pooh I just ruined it didn't I? Oh well custard pies to the face for everyone it is" *snap*

"...that mean" Twilight finished then blinked in confusion, she didn't remember teleporting into a dank cell made of moss ridden grey stone blocks. 

"Twilight?.." her apprentice called panic creeping into her voice "...why did you bring us to this dirty hole?" 

The Alicorn bit her lip, the floor was dry dirt and the door was sealed with a portcullis of rusted iron. "Starlight, how much would you freak out if I asked if it was you who brought us here?" 

The Alicorn heard a quiet whimper from the former dictator as she sunk down and started mutter "everything's fine Starlight, so you trapped: But at least your not alone, don't panic, we can get out of this..." 

A disembodied voice floated out of the air; it was grating, whiny and over-stressed all the keywords as if it was talking to a child 'Lost? Confused? Frightened? Good! Ahahahahahaha' three hued lightning leapt off the wall that painted in wild eyes and wilder hair in the center of the room, slowly a lanky brown unicorn in a navy wing collar cloak took shape out of the localized storm. He reared up and with a bow legged prance spun in the air "It took rather longer than I anticipated but at last, I have caught you wretched bookworm!" Twilight looked emphatically unimpressed, Discord could pull off the mad clown act with menace; this guy just seemed goofy.

"Your Meen I take it? So what do you want?" The Princesses of Friendship snapped at the gamboling sorcerer. 

Meen leered manically "I, the greatest sorcerer in the world want for nothing insolent brat! But for the good of Equestria I have sealed you away in my labyrinth, with no more goody goodies to ruin the fun everyone will be able to go out to play, mwa ha!" he performed a awkward pierrette for emphasis.

Starlight's patience tanked out and she strode forwards, people said her evil plan to better Equestria was ridiculous but this was just embarrassing "Look here you giggling idiot; how is imprisoning all its learned citizens going to improve Equestria!?.." Twilight tried to restrain and calm her student but the unicorns wrath had been kindled "...all your doing is making the country stupid, unless dragging everyone down to your level is the goal!?"

Ignatius scowled "You smarties are all the same, always thinking your oh so much better than everyone else, well it's time someone taught you a thing or two..." he took aim with his horn and a blast of tricoloured light hit the former dictator square in the chest, it propelled her back smashing her through the rusted bars of the portcullis into the hall, Twilight cried out in alarm and raced to her friends aid. Meen drew himself up "...Today's lesson is about the dangers of being too smart for your own good. I hope you're paying attention, bookworm!" There was an explosion of electricity that arced into the walls taking the sorcerer with it.

The hall was much the same as the cell except for the portraits of I.M.Meen that ogled you as you passed, The Princesses of Friendship knelt down next to her charge and began scanning her, The Unicorn blinked "I think I'm OK, just bruised nothing broken" 

Twilight finished her sweep and helped her up before aggressively booping her nose  "Don't! Provoke! The! Badguy!" 

Her apprentice flapped her hooves in irritation to drive her back "Ok, ok, I agree; insulting him was a bad move, I just...I wanted a fair world Twilight; Remove cutiemarks and put everyone on an even starting point, no advantages or interference from outside forces but he...*sigh* did I really sound that stupid?"

Twilight sighed indulgently "Yeah you kinda did, more intimidating and less goofy but, yeah. Look, take it from me it's easy to lead yourself down a narrow path of obsession that seems perfectly logical from the inside but totally crazy from the outside. That's when you need your friends, to remind you where reality is; You all help keep each other on the strait and narrow, laugh at each other's silliness and distract you from yourself. Meen doesn't have that like you do now." 

Starlight grinned with a suppressed chuckle "we're going to forgive him aren't we?" Twilight smiled back as she straightened up "you betcha', it's part of the job. Defeat the villain, turn him to good and Pinkie throws a party. OK, let's solve this labyrinth!"