//------------------------------// // Baking up a Storm // Story: Aspects of Harmony // by kwr2k13 //------------------------------// Taking a deep breath Ashley opens the door to the kitchen and she and Alex were greeted by the sight of half baked dough and apples all over the place.  The anthro CMC and Starlight were covered with some of it. Starlight held up one finger and said, “Not. One. Word.” Alex covered her mouth to hide a chuckle. *poof*! “Hey Ash! I got Star’s text about Scoots. How she taking it?” Ayumi said teleporting into the room. After seeing the mess Ayumi levitated it all off of them. “Better girls?” Apple Bloom looked at herself and said, “Yes ma'am.”  then she looked at the mess on the kitchen and added, “But how did this happen?  We followed the recipe exactly.” The young filly anthro held up the recipe cards for Ayumi to examine. “Did Sweetie use magic? Last time I tried cooking with levitation I kinda blew up my microwave.” Ayumi said. “I wrecked the toaster oven back home in America when a surge levitated a tray of chocolate chip cookies into it.” Alex said with a shudder. “Um… yes.” Sweetie Belle said sheepishly. “I told you ‘don’t try too much with magic yet,.’ Sweetie. Practice the small stuff till I can train you in your magic.” Ayumi said ruffling her mane. “But it’s nice that you’re trying at least.” “She saved me when Granny Smith mistook me for a regular mouse.” Alex said, after a moment of thought She asked “Sensei, would you know what Cutie Marks mean?” Who’s cutiemark the Cmc’s or yours? Cause the Cmc should get their canon Cutie Marks soon now that we have them all here.” Ayumi said. Alex motioned to her shoulders and said, “Mine.” “Try to grow again so we can take a picture this will be a great way for the Cmc to regain their Cutie Marks, after all it’s the secondary meaning of their Cutie Marks.” Ayumi said turning to the Cmc “Still I hope you three will help regardless.” Alex focused on her magic, First she tried to access her Chaos magic but it slid away from her.  She started to get frustrated and the chaos magic began to build towards a surge when suddenly she felt her alicorn magic latch onto the spell she was trying to cast.  Alex’s hands stopped glowing and her eyes started to glow. Then Alex slowly grew to her human size and her clothes weren't destroyed. “Stop Alex! You’re surging! I meant use your alicorn magic it should be safer!” Alex heard in her head as her magic flowed through her. “Good! Just don’t be surprised when you look in the dining room mirror.”   Alex’s eyes stopped glowing the moment the spell completed. “Whoa nelly! How’d you get those wings, Alex?” Apple Bloom said. “Say What?!” Alex said and looked in to the nearest mirror.  She watched as they faded away. “Wha-what happened, Sensei?” “Well I kinda wanted to see your alicorn magic but I forgot to tell you to try using it and you started surging, so I tried using my telepathy to help you but it turns out your alicorn magic had already took over thus your wings.” Ayumi said “Though that makes me wonder if you keep your magic going if you can fly without ki. Oh! i forgot to tell you ki can be used to fly if   you have enough of it which you most definitely do.” “I’ll give it a try later.” Alex said. Ashley cleared her throat and said, “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s get cooking!” “Give me a second to take that picture of Alex’s cutie mark and we’ll start.” Ayumi said taking out her phone “Show your cutie mark and stand still Alex.” Alex turned her shoulder so it faced her sensei and froze.  She stayed still until her ears picked up a faint click/whir. “Ok we’re good. By the way what bacon are we cooking or was Granny Smith making lunch earlier when she called?” Ayumi said. “Cause i still smell it.” “Granny was making lunch.”  Ashley replied. “It was the last of the bacon we bought when we bought groceries.  We all had Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwiches.” Apple Bloom added, “Ya, ever since we became earth ponies it started to taste yucky.“  The young filly made a face to show her disgust of the taste of the bacon in the BLT sandwiches.. Ashley nodded, “All of us could barely keep it down; land sakes, it tasted so bad!  The lettuce and tomato tasted heavenly though. Don’t rightly know why though.” The apple farm girl shrugged. Alex thought a moment then said, “Could be you’re vegan biologically.  Pegasi & unicorns can eat meat because they need the protein to fuel their magic.” “Not really, most of us have human digestive systems even normal ponies like Pinkie do eat and enjoy meat still.” Ayumi said confused. “It might be how heavily processed the bacon is here or that it wasn’t applesmoked. After all the whole family is apple based right?” Alex nodded and said, “Okay let’s clean this place and get cooking.” After helping to clean up the mess Alex and the others got started on a fresh batch of apple pies. Once finished Alex noticed she was still human sized, but a bit shorter than before. Ashley looked over at Alex after the last of the pies were placed in the oven, “Alex, is it mah imagination, are are ya a might bit shorter?  Ah mean, Ah’m about 6’1” or so.” “Well she used alicorn magic to grow slowly this time. She might be shrinking slowly as well.” Ayumi said with a chuckle “At least this time her clothes didn’t explode.” Alex looked at time and added, “I don’t understand; I matched the amount of mana that caused me to grow the last time, or at least I think so.” “Alicorn magic is structured and has better control over its Mana usage meaning that it would be more efficient in how you grow and Shrink.” Ayumi said “we could also factor in the extra mana that comes from your surges as you almost did surge till your Alicorn magic took over.” “Oh great.” the mouse groused.  “Now I have figure out how much mana to put in to remain human sized until school is out for the day.”  By now Alex was able to look the CMC in the eye. “I could make a mana sink bracelet that’ll be what the spell pulls from, kinda like your translator coin.” Ayumi said “it’ll be a good time to try Skyrim-level enchanting.” “Erk!” Alex said, “I could never figure that style for enchanting.” “Soul gems are the problem. We don’t want to use them, due to how you fill them, but something like ‘em. That’s why I was testing crystal batteries back at school.” Ayumi said with a frown “Spike has been looking for better quality gems to help out.” Alex thought over her adventures as Alex Viator, tapping into her Alicorn magic she remembered a certain box in her bedroom in America.  Gathering local mana then shaped the spell. “Abracadabra!” she said. As she prepared the spell, she finished shrinking so the ornate box appeared in midair and dropped to the ground two inches in front of Alex. “WHAT’S IN THE BOX?!!!!!!!!!!!” Screamed Ayumi as everyone stared at her confused as to why she screamed it out “I always wanted to use that meme so give me a break! Seemed a perfect time to! Anyway WHAT is in the box Alex? The BlackStar? Cause if it is, send it right the fug back home.” Alex winced at her sensei’s scream.  “A gift from Daring Do sent by dragonfire.  It contains twenty-five fire rubies. It was supposed to have 30 but Spike the dragon on her side ate five before she could stop him.  She sent them to me as thanks for my help with the mirror of Lathrop Htrae adventure.” with that Alex opened the box revealing twenty-five fire rubies scintillating as if radiating heat yet none could felt from it. “I think those will work but I’ll have to use my dragonfire to charge them,” Ayumi said “by the way the bracelet will be made out of Nightmare metal and an Ice Ruby or Ice Sapphire as it can also be called. That’s cause ruby and sapphire are the same gem, just different colors due to their impurities making the gem blue or red respectively. I was a rockhound well before I became part dragon so i know a lot about gemstones. That’s also why I’m building my home in the Coober Pedy opal mines since you can keep any gems you find.” “So you can dig up a snack when you feel snacky?” Alex said teasingly. “That and I can get material for enchanting easily.” Ayumi said with a grin. “I'm already rich so I won't need to sell anything I find. The Nightmare metal will not need to be enchanted to shrink and grow after I tie it to your alicorn magic making for less work for me.” “I’ve collected a lot of stuff over the three years I’ve been adventuring, some are pretty exotic.”  Alex said. “Would some them be useful in enchanting?” Alex then did a ki assisted jump to the tabletop and began using her chaos magic to gather the rest of the remains of the unfortunate pie.  She then telekinetically threw the resultant blob into the trash. Alex then placed her hands on her knees and caught her breathe as the action took more out her than she realized.  “I feel like I stayed up for sixty hours straight at a con.” She said as she looked at Ayumi. “Is this what you mean about chaos magic being hard on the body until it aligns with my body?” To which she received a small nod. “That’s the first stage of chaos magic exhaustion. If you keep going, it’ll start hurting then knock you out for a couple of days.” Ayumi said “So be careful and try using more of your alicorn magic and ki levitation.” While Sensei and student talked, the new fully anthrofied CMC began making apple fritters with Sweetie Belle mixing the ingredients and dishing it out into chunky balls of dough. Apple Bloom took over by putting them into a dutch oven with boiling oil.  Scootaloo finished the job by putting the finished fritters into a large basket. Alex smiled as she watched the filly anthros work at making the applely treats, sat down at the edge of the table.  She felt a sudden sadness as she watched, at her current level of mastery she doubted that she could be more help with her magic. Ayumi picked her up in her own magic “You shouldn’t be sad, Alice! You helped out so much already; plus you can taste test once the pies are done. So cheer up! At least Pinkie isn’t here to eat it all before anyone else.” “It’s Alex.”  The mouse says with slight annoyance.  “Nightmare Moon called me Alice.” She then turned to Ayumi, “Discord visited us earlier.  What was that all about?” Ashley chuckled, “Discord is what we call a being of chaos an’ disharmony.   He must have sensed yer chaos magic and wanted to check it out fer himself.” While they waited for the pies to finish, the newly minted Scootaloo got bored.  Picking up a nearby magnifying glass, she carefully examined Alex's cutie mark. The red circle didn't seem special.  The shield itself looked like the shield Shining Armor had in his Cutie Mark. The two five pointed stars reminded her of the stars on the American flag.  The six pointed star was identical to Twilight’s cutie mark, right down to the tiny stars surrounding it. “OHMYGAWD!!!” Scootaloo exclaimed. Ashley looked over at Scootaloo, “Whatcha goin’ on about now, Sam?  Oh, by the way, Alex’s pies and fritters look delicious, by the way.  Nice job foldin’ the dough around those apple slices.” “Alex’s cutie mark has Twilight’s cutie mark as part of it.” Sam said excitedly as she handed the magnifying glass to Ashley.  “Take a look at the six pointed star in her cutie mark and you’ll see what I mean.” Ashley took the magnifier and looked at Alex’s cutie mark while Alex remained still.  “Land sakes, you’re right! Alex, did you ever draw a picture of what your cutie mark would look like?” “On the plane on the way to Perth from LAX.  I got bored and drew it to pass the time.” Alex replied.  Unfortunately, my laptop hiccupped and rebooted itself before I could save it.”    Ashley was about to ask about if she saved the e-mail attachment she got from the mlp theorists when something clicked and she asked, “Could you describe this here Buhe fellar fer us?” Ayumi, Starlight, Sweetie Belle, and Sam looked at Ashley in confusion.  Alex thought a moment, then said, “Buhe was described as having the head of a horse, the body of a dragon, the paw of a lion, talon of a raptor, hoof of a goat, claw of a lizard, a bat’s wing, a feathered wing, one antelope horn, one deer antler and the tail of a gator or dragon.” “Sugarcube, ya just described Discord.” Ashley stated matter-of-factly. “SAY WHAT!” everybody else but Ayumi shouted. Where as Ayumi shouted “DAMMIT DAD! YOU HAVE SOME SHIT TO ANSWER FOR NOW!” Suddenly there was a flash and there was the Lord of Chaos, Discord.  He was smiling as he looked at Ayumi. “Tempest! My lovely abomination what ‘shit’ do I ha…" he paused, "Oh my, this version of Earth feels familiar, but I can’t put my claw on it.” He said before fidgeting with his beard. Ashley looked at Alex and saw the mouse girl was outlined in emerald fire and looking pissed.  “Come on girls, let’s find the first aid kit.” She said as she herded the CMC out of the room. . “But why do you need our help t’ find it?” Apple Bloom asked in confusion. “I think I’ll help.” Starlight hastily said as she joined them. Discord watched in a little puzzlement as the anthro equines hurriedly left the room.  “Why are they leaving?” He asked Ayumi. Ayumi was fuming and said, “Dad look behind you and meet my student.” The dragonequis looked behind and saw Alex as she jumped down to the floor and grew to human size.  “A mouse girl?” He said in surprise. Ayumi changed into Tempest then said, “Dad I’d like you to meet Alexandra Traveller, formerly Alexandre Viator.” Discord looked at the mouse girl as she cracked her knuckles. “Viator?  I haven't heard name that since I was on this Earth… 15,000… years… ag...ERK!” Discord said as Alex grabbed him by the throat, lifting him off the ground. In the hallway out of sight of the Kitchen, Ashley pulled up a large box.  Scootaloo was leaning against one shoulder asked, “Why are we all here? You already knew where it is.” Starlight looked nervously towards the kitchen and said, “You girls probably noticed that Alex looked like she was on fire back there right.”  Sweetie Belle got a look of concern and asked, “Why?” “Don’t rightly know sugarcube.,” Ashley said looking back toward her family's kitchen “All Ah know is that Discord messed with Alex’s family along time ago cursing them with sumthin. I didn’t think it was this Disord though as Ayumi said that her Pony Dad was never truly evil jus’ that he went Mad for awhile.” Suddenly there was a crash! it was was followed by four more.  Worried about what was happening in the kitchen, Ashley picked the first aid kit and hurried back.  When they got there, Discord was laying in a hole in the floor that was ironically the same spot the pear jam was hidden “The Perfect Pear” in the show.  Alex was still human sized and had her arms crossed as she looked at Ashley and said, “I apologize for the floor, but he had it coming.” Tempest had an evil smile as she raised her phone and said, “Mama Luna’s going to have a cow for missing this. Momie Selene even more! Good thing I got pictures!” Alex sat on the nearby table and shrank by to mouse-size. “I want to thank you for giving me the chance to blow off the steam that’s been building up for three years.” “Hay Alex I think you just combine both of you magics with that flaming cloak!” Tempest said “While I’m proud of you for doing so you should try to control your anger, after all we don’t want a hulk-like situation to come up without need for it.” “What do you mean by that Sensei?” Alex asked in puzzlement. “Tempest please don’t give that little mana bomb any ideas please” Moaned Discord before he noticed Tempest dialing on her phone.  “uh… Tempest sweetie what are you doing?” “Oh nothing.” The Alicorn of Destiny said. “Just sending Auntie Celestia, Moma Luna, Momie Seline and Velvet some recently acquired pics.” Discord groaned.  “Your finally getting me back for that pranksgiving last year.” “Yup.” Tempest said with a cheeky grin “Also nice reference there dad.” “Well I better leave before Miss mouse-hulk gets pissed at me again and does a repeat performance. “  He says as he crawls out of the hole before teleporting away. “Now that that’s over what I meant is that not all the threats we’ll face my little sister and her friends elements won’t be able to beat alone.” Tempest said as she reverted back to her normal form of Ayumi “ there will be blood and possibly gore so we train to prevent this.” Alex started to say something when her cellphone began vibrating in her pocket.  “Hello?” Alex asked. “I almost forgot.” Discord’s voice came back.  Alex could almost swear she was hearing the voices of ten individuals, seven of which she thought she recognized, laughing in the background. “During the next week do try to wear denim slacks or shorts.  Unless you want your mother to be a grandmother and don’t forget to check the news about swamp fever where you’re at.” Alex looked at her phone puzzled.  “Now that was cryptic.”  she said as she put her phone away. “If I’m right then your alicorn magic might cause a false heat due to adjustments it’ll go through.” Ayumi said with distaste “Dad must have thought it’d be hilarious to speed it along. And before you ask, yes chaos magic links us so I heard it too.” “Oh great.” Alex said with a heavy dose of sarcasm. “But what did he mean about Swamp Fever though.” “That i don’t know but it might be a reference to fallout 3 and it’s point lookout dlc or worse the countryside is changing as we do.” Ayumi said a slightly worried expression on her face. “As far as i know  there’s no swamp near here, at best the banyon grove could be considered a coastal swamp of sorts.” Alex facepalmed as a thought occurred to her.  “Sensei, we better check the news.” she said. Sam rushed ahead, enjoying beginning able to  run again and turned on the TV. It showed an aerial view of Ayers Rock surrounded by a swamp of all things.  All the anthros in the room could say only one thing. “Aw horseapples.”  Ashley exclaimed.