//------------------------------// // Chapter The Final Countdown: Consolidating Your Problems... Only Makes One Big Problem [Pen Stroke] // Story: Ponemurdered 2 // by The Gentlecolt //------------------------------// “Okay, how are we going to fix this?” Starlight Glimmer asked herself as she walked the perimeter of the library, eyes glancing up and down the shelves. Her mind was already trying to piece together different combinations of spells. She didn’t know of one spell that would solve this problem, and she didn’t have time to research the single perfect spell to fix the problem. That was more Twilight’s modus operandi. Starlight preferred taking what she knew and trying to apply it in such a way that solved the problem. Maybe she was reinventing something somepony else had already perfected, but she felt her way let her get to a solution more quickly. And right now, she needed faster. She didn’t want to believe that writing a fictional story would be the thing that could tear Twilight and her friends apart. Yet, their ever-escalating arguments certainly weren’t inspiring any confidence that they would be able to work it out without some outside help. Starlight’s eyes danced across the spines of the books as she walked along the shelves. Finally, one title caught her eye. With a light touch of magic, she drew the book off the shelf and flipped through the pages. The spell she had found was promising.  She could transport them into the story, have them act out the rolls of the characters and then just have the spell transcribe the events. But… wait, her friends had already been through that before. They had been sucked into one of Spike’s comic books. They got out, obviously, but… now she was remembering the downside of such a spell. The participants didn’t get out until the story was over, and if the girls couldn’t agree when the story was supposed to end… they could easily get stuck. “Run the risk of trapping my friends forever in their own unfinished book… yeah… let’s not use that spell.” Starlight snapped the book shut and returned it to the shelf. A couple dozen more steps and another title caught her eye. The book was swiftly opened, it’s pages fluttering in front of Starlight’s nose. This book detailed ancient judiciary spells, and one caught her eye. It was a charm where a council of elders would link their minds too quickly deliberate and render a verdict on a legal issue. The Council Consensus spell was meant to cut down on time wasted communication and deliberation. “But… communication isn’t the problem.” Starlight glanced back at the library door. Maybe it was just her imagination, but she could have sworn she just heard one particularly loud shout. No, communication wasn’t the problem, at least not the main problem. The main problem was each pony working on the story had a picture of what the story should be. If one of them was the “lead” author and the others were just providing feedback, they’d have less to argue about. But they were all meant to be equals, to have an equal share in the story, but that attempt at equality was leading to the strife. Starlight remembered that morning when Twilight was making pancakes. The way the girls were trying to work on the story, it was like they were all trying to make breakfast. But while Twilight was making pancakes, Rarity was trying to make french toast, Applejack was trying to make apple muffins, and Pinkie Pie was trying to make donuts while they were all trying to use the same stove and the same utensils at the same time. “Too many cooks spoil the broth,” Starlight muttered to herself. She had just been making an off comment as she went to put the judiciary spellbook away, but that thought lingered. The trouble was there were too many cooks in the kitchen, too many authors trying to write the same story. She reopened and reread the Council Consensus spell. The gears of Starlight’s mind began to turn at a feverish pace. She began trotting forward, glancing between the open judiciary spellbook and the shelves she was moving past. Soon, she had snatched another book: a classical military spellbook.  Inside it, she found the Shared Strength spell. It was a spell developed for the battlefield. When cast, the charm would allow a squad of soldiers could all share one another’s skills while linked by the spell. It was effective, though it was known to have dangerous side effects if one of the soldiers was injured while the squad was linked together. “Okay, this is good… it just needs… one more thing.” Starlight was jogging around the library, trying to find the perfect spell… the perfect binding agent to make her concoction of magic work. The spell needed to be something that would form a strong binding purpose. A spell that could draw power from and strengthen the other spells based on the girls’ friendship. It had to be something… something… Starlight skidded to a stop, a thought in her mind clicking into place. There was only one spell that would fit the bill. It was the spell that had been forged from the very magic of friendship. It was the spell that not even Starswirl the Bearded himself had been unable to complete. It was the spell that let Twilight earn her wings. Perhaps it was a little overkill to use such an arguably powerful spell as the binding agent between Council Consensus and Shared Strength, but… Starlight felt it in her gut. This was the spell that would help her friends. Now, how did she cast it on them without them trying to stop her? “Knock, Knock… how’s it going in here?” Starlight asked, pushing her way into the throne room where… it was painfully quiet. The six mares were just glaring at one another. Perhaps they had reached a dead end in their argument and didn’t have anything to say. It was equally possible that they had put their argument on hold because she had stepped into the room. Still, the throne room looked like a literary battlefield, where dozens of books had come to fight and die. Crumbled pages littered every corner of the room. Notes were scrawled upon pages, scratched out, scrawled again, and then scratched out again. There were rude doodles, angry faces, and more than a few pieces of paper that had been ripped to shreds. “Well… it looks like you’re making progress. Still, I thought all of you could use a drink.” Starlight carried a tray of drinks into the room, setting it down on the edge of the map table before she began passing out each drink to its respective recipient. “I got a ‘Stalliongrad Winter’ for Twilight. I have a ‘Barey Dirty Cherry’ for Fluttershy. Applejack, Rainbow, I have a hard cider for each of you. Rarity, I have a Chardonnay. Finally, for Pinkie, a triple-decker cookies-n-cream milkshake with extra whip cream and three cherries on top.” The offer of drinks seemed to break the silence of the room a little. The girls muttered quiet appreciation to Starlight as each accepted their drink. Rarity and Fluttershy took gentle sips. Twilight took a single stout gulp. Rainbow and Applejack chugged down their ciders, and in fact seemed to make an impromptu contest out of who could chug their mug faster. Finally Pinkie, in a single deep slurp, sucked the contents of her milkshake glass up through its straw and into her mouth, cherries and all. It was a chaotically strange sight that was sure to impress even Discord. “Thank you, Starlight,” Twilight said, trying to muster a smile despite the visible fatigue and stress on her face. “Well, I wouldn't thank me just yet.” She said, drawing a scroll out from under the tray she had used to carry the drinks into the room. Twilight’s eyes flicked to the scroll, then back to Starlight. “You didn’t.” “Trust me, I think it’s for the best this time.” She said, quickly tossing the scroll into the middle of the map table. As the scroll flew, each of the mares seated around the table began to glow with magic. When the scroll had reached the center, ropes of mystical energy connected it to all six heroes of Equestria. “From all of us together, together we're friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end!" Starlight recited, triggering a crack of lightning from her spell scroll. Twilight and her friends were swiftly levitated out of their thrones, floating into the air, staying even with Starlight’s spell scroll. The girls panicked, shouted, and screamed, but Starlight did not stop the spell. This wouldn’t hurt them. She had built a lynchpin into the spell that, when removed, would cause them to return to normal. It was just going to be a bit of a wild ride. Once the girls and the scroll were a safe distance above their thrones, the group of six mares began to spin. Like they had been strapped to a playground merry-go-round, the magic flowing from the spell scroll spun them around and around. It started slow but soon began to pick up speed. Faster and faster they spun, eventually reaching a velocity where Starlight was having trouble making out details. To her, watching from below, there was just a spinning rainbow floating above the map table. It was at that point the girls began moving in towards the spell scroll. The rainbow ring they formed began shrinking, growing smaller and tighter. It went from resembling a hula hoop to a donut in a matter of seconds. And still, the circumference of the ring shrank and shrank until it formed a single, clean, spherical shape. A moment after the ring had collapsed into a sphere, it flashed with a blinding white light. Starlight instinctively looked away, covering her face with the hoof. She had managed to spare herself getting a sunspot in her vision, but she still waited a few moments to ensure the bright light had faded before she dared to open her eyes. “Did it work?” Starlight asked, a small tremor of uncertainty in her voice. She surely hadn’t been expecting such a light show. But maybe the magic of friendship was just naturally flashy. It sure seemed the Elements of Harmony always made a big show out of any villain they purified or imprisoned. Still, Starlight eventually looked to the center of the map table, where the sphere of spinning magic had been moments before. And in its place was something far different from what Starlight was expecting. Floating an inch above the map table, where once six mares had sat arguing, was now one serene being. A single pony that seemed to have a radiance all her own. At first blush, Starlight could have confused the pony for Twilight. The mare had Twilight’s long legs and general face profile. Yet, the pony before Starlight surely was not Twilight… at least it was not just Twilight. This single mare bore three pairs of wings, one lavender, one cyan, and one yellow. The mare’s long, sharp unicorn horn seemed like an ice cream swirl of lavender and white. While the fur on the head, neck, and barrel was lavender, the front legs were a bright, happy pink and the back legs were a staunch orange color. Atop the pony’s head were six ears, three on each side and each one a different color. Finally the mare’s mane and tail were, in a way, like Princess Celestia’s. It was filled with magic, constantly shifting in color and form. Yet, it was not simply shifting between a few pastel colors. It morphed and transformed into six distinct and unique kinds of hair. There were pink, untamable curls next to smooth elegant purple locks. There was dry, split end blonde hairs woven in with loud, rainbow-toned scruff. Clean, straight lined purples were alongside delicate, gently swooping light pinks. “Girls? You okay?” Starlight asked cautiously, trying to raise her voice but finding it difficult to give her words volume. It felt like, instinctively, like she was doing something wrong… like trying to shout in a library. Those few words, however, drew the attention of the unified mare. She opened her eyes, pure magic flowing where her eyeballs should have been. “I am… we are… what am… are… I… we?” Starlight winced, the broken speech confirming her fears. Her spell, which was simply meant to let her friends work together more easily on their book, had actually merged the six ponies together into a single being. Still, everything was fine. She could undo this. She just had to trigger the failsafe. It was such a nice simple failsafe. She just had to use a bit of magic to touch each mare’s right ear at the same time. Starlight looked at the mare… and her vision focused on the mare’s ears. Three right ears, three left ears, and that meant Starlight was three right ears short. “Ummmmmm… this could be bad.” The fused mare wasn’t paying attention to Starlight, at least not entirely. Her wings twitched, her horn sparked with little surges of magic, and she turned her head as she surveyed the room. “We were… writing… yes… I was… we… I was writing a story.” The papers around the room began to levitate up, summoned by the fused mare’s magic. They began to circle her, allowing the mare to view some of the pages. “We were… arguing… I was arguing… with myself.” “Yes, all of you were arguing, but now you don’t have anyone to argue with.” Starlight began backing towards the door slowly, keeping a forced, reassuring smile on her face. “So, since there’s no one left to argue with, that means you should be able to finish your story with no trouble. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have arguments anymore?” “Arguments are bad. We… I… do not like to argue.” “Great!” Starlight reached the door, using her own magic to crack it open before sneaking her haunches through the opening. “So you just stay here and work on your story. I bet you’ll have it done in no time now. I’m just going to step out to run a few more errands. You know, just pick up a few little things. Do you think you’ll be okay on your own?” Starlight didn’t get a response. Instead, the single pony, formed out of her six friends, had taken up quills from around the room. She was making notes on pages and rewriting other ones entirely. The fused being was absorbed in the work that had been the focus Twilight and her friends for the past few days. “Yeah, you’ll be fine.” Starlight said, backing up a bit further so it was only her head left in the room. “Just stay here and keep working. I promise I’ll be back really quick. So don’t go anywhere. I wouldn’t even go near any windows or doors. You know, don’t let yourself get distracted.” Again, Starlight received no answer. “Okay… so… here I go, and remember, don’t go anywhere.” With that Starlight finished exiting the room. She gently shut the door, let the latch fall shut a quietly as possible. She then just stood there a moment, forcing a smile as her eyes stared at the door’s crystalline structure in utter panic. “I am in so much trouble.” After doing her best to make sure the door to the throne room was sealed, Starlight galloped out into Ponyville. The daylight was waning. Soon, the sun and moon would exchange dominance in the sky and nighttime would firmly take hold of the city. Had Starlight really spent that much time working on her spell? She did remember stopping for lunch, but she didn’t realize she had missed dinner. Still, there was no time for that. She was in over her head and needed to get help. The only problem now was figuring out who to ask for help. Galloping through the streets of Ponyville, her mind began flipping through the ponies she could try and seek help from. She could go talk to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, but that involved either finding Spike or a trip to Canterlot. She didn’t know where Spike was, and traveling to Canterlot would take too much time. That and she didn’t even know if the princesses were in Canterlot. They could very easily be in some far off corner of Equestria attending to princessly matters. No, she needed to try and get help from someone she could easily find. Rounding a corner and passing by the antique shop, Starlight’s mind went to Sunburst. He could probably help her put together a series of spells that would undo what had been done. And he almost never traveled away from the Crystal Empire. But that also meant going to the Crystal Empire. If she took the train, she’d be away from Ponyville and the six-in-one alicorn she had created much longer than she wanted to be. If she tried to teleport there, even using a series of jumps, she’d be magically exhausted by the time they got back. Consider she might need her magic to undo her spell, spending it all just on travel wasn’t perhaps the best idea. Starlight’s mind began flipping through the friends and acquaintances she had more quickly, eliminating them as soon as they came up. Trixie, she’d just laugh and wouldn’t be able to help. Thorax, he was too far away and probably wouldn’t be able to help. Discord— She skidded to a stop. Of course, Discord. Okay, maybe she was taking her life into her own hooves telling him what she did to Fluttershy, but he was a being with godlike powers and that hopefully meant he could help her undo what had been done. Now, the only trouble was trying to get in touch with him. But, after the incident with Chrysalis, Discord actually gave them a means to reach him. Turning her head left and right, Starlight quickly surveyed the part of town she was in. Thankfully, she was close to Mr. Breeze’s fan emporium. She quickly trotted up to the front display, step as close as she could to the large glass window. She, however, did not need to purchase one of the fans on display inside the shop. All she needed was the large glass surface. She began to pant, breathing onto the glass in an attempt to get it to fog up. Thankfully, the heat of the day was already starting to disappear and the window was growing cold. She was able to get it to fog up, just enough for her to perform the little ritual Discord had taught them. “Draw infinity, divide by zero, and add a one when you need some chaotic help or fun.” The match equation she drew in the steam of her own breath was something she knew bothered Twilight to no end. Still, as soon as she finished she began hearing a small melody playing. It was some happy little ditty that sounded like it was coming from some tiny record player. Still, after a few moments of that, Starlight noticed the whole front window of Mr. Breeze’s shop was starting to fog over. That and the numbers she had drawn in the glass were starting to move and drift, floating towards the center as a few other lines and shapes began to join them. Soon, the drawn lines in the fog of the mirror formed the familiar shape of Discord’s face, the eyes even blinking as he looked down at Starlight. “You know, it never fails. I get into the tub for a nice iced mocha bath and someone knocks on my chaotic dimensions front door.” “Sorry, but I could really use your help.” “Is it life threatening?” Discord asked. Starlight lifted her hoof and shook it a little bit. “Maybe.” “Is it something you did?” “Yes.” “Does it involve Fluttershy?” “Yes.” The brow on the steam-drawn Discord furrowed. “Do you want to tell me what you did to Fluttershy?” “Welllllll…” With a distinct pop, Discord and Starlight appeared outside the doors to the throne room of Twilight’s castle. “Honestly, Starlight, you’re a mare after my own heart sometimes. I mean, merging Twilight and her friends together into a single being. I wish I had thought of that back when I was a little more… villainously inclined. Though I might have made it so they each had their own head, just so they could bicker and argue with one another.” “Thanks for the stamp of approval, but I just want this mess cleaned up as quickly as possible.” Starlight said as she began pushing open the door. “Oh, I agree. The thought of Fluttershy possibly being infected with some of Twilight’s annoying tendencies just makes my skin crawl.” He helped to push open the door, the pair looking into the throne room. It was still a disaster of papers, but Starlight couldn’t help but gallop inside when she realized something very important was missing. “They...  she’s gone!” Starlight shouted, running to the far end of the map table. “Where did they go?” Discord snapped a paw, teleporting the few dozen feet so he was floating above the map table. He looked down at the table, eventually picking up what looked like a cleanly aligned three-ring binder. He flipped it open, gently turning the pages before snapping it shut and placed it back down on the table. “Well, your plan worked. It would appear they finished their book. I’m sure it’s a riveting page-turner.” “It better be after all this trouble.” Starlight lifted her forehooves to set them on the map table. “I mean, it looked like they were working quickly when I left, but I never imagined they’d finish the whole thing under an hour. And I promised to be back here before they finished. That was probably why they left.” “Starlight?” A voice… no, a pair of voices, speaking in perfect unison said as a figure stepped into the doorway. Discord and Starlight both turned, eyes bulging in surprise at what they saw. It looked like it was Big Mac. A strong, tall stallion with a mostly red coat, but… his tail was long, thick, and with a pointed spike at the end. He had green spines running up his back, and a light green, fleshy underbelly. His jaw was a mishmash of flat and sharp teeth, and the stallion seemed to be sweating profusely. It was like his body was running far hotter than it was comfortable with. Finally, his eyes were mismatched. One was certainly Big Mac’s familiar eye color, but the other eye belonged to dragon Starlight knew all too well. “Spike! Big Mac! What happened?” Starlight galloped up to them, checking them over. There was no doubt about it. This was very similar to the spell she had used to fuse Twilight and her friends. “I… we were arguing about… something for O&O.” Discord floated over beside Starlight. “Hmm, that’s right. Our last session ended on a bit of a sour note. Big Mac’s character took a nasty hit which he felt he should have resistance too, but Spike would budge on it. I’m surprised they’re still arguing about it.” “Yes… we were… I was arguing… when… someone came in the room. They cast a spell and… we… I… this happened.” “Arguments are bad. We… I… do not like to argue.” The last thing she remembered her fused friends saying rang in Starlight’s mind. “This whole thing started because they were arguing. My spell may not have worked like I planned, but it did stop them from arguing and let them finish the book. The mare they became… she said arguments are bad. If she saw these two arguing and decided to stop their argument with my spell... Starlight turned to look at Discord. “We have to find them… her. If we don’t, they could start fusing ponies together all across Equestria. And eventually, if the fusions start arguing, she’ll fuse the fusions, and eventually…” “Eventually all of Equestria, all the world could get merged into a single solitary being. And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not have to have tea with the whole world just to have tea with Fluttershy.” Discord began snapping his claw rhythmically, each snap causing a poof of smoke to surround the fused stallion in front of them. “Give me a moment to experiment with Spike Mac here. You used friendship magic in this spell, so it’s not the easiest thing for me to pull apart. But once I have it figured out, we’ll go looking for Twilight and her friends.” “Okay, but hurry.” Starlight said, anxiously dancing on her hooves. “For all we know, the spell could become permanent if they’re stuck together too long.”