//------------------------------// // A chaotic innocent animal // Story: We will catch you if we can // by proto-alpha //------------------------------// Fernando was put in a cage after Celestia knocked him out with her magic. "What do we do with it, princess?" asked one of the guards that had brought the cage. "Bring it with me. We have to send back this creature from wherever Discord brought it and the Elements of Harmony are our best option" she said, thinking that this shouldn't be a problem at all. While walking back to the castle, the other members of the HHT and Luna caught up with her and got relieved when they saw the creature in the cage. "Let's go back to the Throne room" Celestia told them when she walked next to them. Twilight started to walk to her side and asked her "What are we going to do with this... I think Discord called it human?" Celestia looked at her and responded "Well, if Discord brought it, then the Elements should be able to send it back". Twilight nodded her head and continued walking. In the Throne room, Celestia walked to where the Elements of Harmony were stored. She unlocked the door and then took the chest that contained them. She passed them to the six ponies that represented them and they got in formation to use them. By this point, Fernando was starting to wake up. He moved his mouth as if he was moaning and thought while rubbing his head "Whoa, what happened?". He looked around and saw six ponies levitating while their eyes shined. He noted the necklaces that they were wearing shined too. "I think those are the Elements of Harmony that Twilight talked about" a realization suddenly hit him "Hey, if Discord's magic is supposed to be chaotic then it will disappear". Smiling, he stood up and looked expectantly to the energy that was going out from the necklaces. When the Elements were fully charged, they fired a rainbow colored beam that covered the whole cage that Fernando was in. When it faded, everypony had to wait a little for their sight to come back. In Fernando's case, he tried to yell, say something or anything like that, but still no sound came from him. Disgruntled, he sat down and started to think of a way to get out. In the ponies, and dragon, case, they expected to see an empty cage, but they got confused as to why the creature was still there. "Hey, the Elements didn't work!" Rainbow said. She looked from Twilight to the princesses and back to Twilight for an explanation. Twilight was as perplex as Rainbow Dash and said "I know, but why?". The ponies started to talk worriedly between them trying to find an explanation. Spike tried to talk, but he wasn't being heard over the others voices "Hey... What if! HEY!" the ponies quieted down at the sudden shout, "thanks, now that I got your attention. What if Discord didn't brought it here in the first place?". "But Spike, he said that he brought him, remember?" Twilight told him, not giving too much importance to her assistant statement. "Yeah, I remember that, but you have to remember too that it's Discord the one we're talking about" this did make some sense in Twilight's head "But, why would Discord want us to think that he brought him here?" Twilight asked him "Beats me" the dragon said while shrugging his shoulders "Either way, he got a reason and that's more than enough for keeping it in a cage" Applejack commented, getting in the conversation. "What do we do with it, princess?" Twilight asked to Celestia, wanting guidance in this issue. "I'm too aware that Discord might have a plan for it, but since he didn't exactly brought it chaotically, then I can assume that it doesn't know what it is doing here..." the princess answered "Oh, I do know what I'm doing here, and I don't like it a bit Fernando thought to him when he heard this. "... so we'll study it until we figure out any possible threats that it might present". Celestia finished. Unnoticed to the group of talking equines and reptile, Fernando hung his head in slight depression. "Again with the studies... and they keep me calling an it". For him, it was like the first day all over again, but without his voice nor some little respect that he received. Fluttershy turned away from the conversation to look at Fernando, and when she noticed he looked a little gloom, her caretaker instincts kicked in. She went up to him and stuck in her hoof, petting him in the head without hesitation while saying. "There, there, don't feel sad. The princess will probably find a way to return you to your home". Contrary to the effect that this would have on other human beings (*cough* bronies *cough*), this didn't help "This is just 'adding salt to the injury'" he thought while imagining his pride putting a vacancy sign on his body. Twilight turned to see what Fluttershy was doing and found her talking to Fernando. This made her remember that Fluttershy could understand animals. She went next to her and said "Fluttershy, since you can understand animals, can you ask it if it knows Discord's plan?" Fluttershy nodded and turned to Fernando to ask the question. He knew that it was a helpless cause to try and communicate, but he tried anyway. Fluttershy saw that he tried to talk, but she didn't heard anything. Returning her head to look in Twilight "I don't think that it can talk. Maybe its species communicate by lip movements" she said disgruntled by the fact that she couldn't help. "Don't worry about it. We'll figure out everything eventually" Twilight told to the pegasus, trying to cheer her up. "I don't want this to solve eventually! I want this to resolve now!" Fernando thought childishly. The two mares turned and walked again to the other ponies to discuss what to do with the matter at hoof. Some hours passed and the day turned to night. The mane six were staying at the castle in case of Discord appearing once again since he still hadn't done anything noticeable. Lyra returned to Ponyville with the excuse that she couldn't be of much help against a being such as Discord. In a room of the third basement of the castle, there was a room with two guards guarding the door. From that room you could hear a banging sound was being made and for the look of the guards, you could say that it had been a while since it began. Inside the room there was Fernando, inside of his cage. The cage was in the middle of the room that was being illuminated with torches. Inside the room there were other four guards, each one of them with an annoyed look on their faces. The source of the sound was the head of Fernando that he was hitting against the bars of the cage in boredom. "This. Is. So. Boring" he thought, timing each word with a hit. He had been there for at least four hours and none of the ponies had given him anything else than two bowls. One had water and the other had some food. "If I wait long enough, the ponies might find a way to take me back to my home" he thought hoping that Discord would leave him alone. Some floors above him, Twilight was at the library of the castle, researching all she could about the human species or anything that looked like them, but it was a futile effort. She wouldn't have slept in all the night if it wasn't for Celestia, who came with her a little past the midnight. "Twilight, it's very late. You should rest a little" she told her in a motherly way. Twilight just shook her head in a negative manner while saying "I can't, princess. I need to know everything I can about this human before it becomes a big problem" "But you won't find anything. I have never seen anything like that before, and you know my age" Celestia responded. Twilight nodded, knowing the seven digit number her teacher was referring to. She was about to return to her room when an important question popped in her mind. "Princess, what do we do if Discord tries to set free the human without us knowing it?". At the question, Celestia smiled, proud of her chaos-proof plan. "The cage has a force field that make it invulnerable to chaos, and the key can't be taken with magic thanks to a potion of our better alchemist. Discord will have a hard time getting it free". Twilight wasn't surprised by her teacher's plan. She had known her for so long as to expect even more complicated and elaborated plans. Returning to the underground, the guards of the room were Fernando were getting sleepy from not sleeping almost anything during that day. Their shift was almost done and they were looking forward to it. There was a sudden noise coming from the darkness and one of them asked "Who is there?" at getting no response, he started to walk to where he heard the noise. The other guard was left alone some time because the light of the torches didn't reach very far. He started to worry when his partner didn't came back. He called for him but he didn't got a response. He decided to go searching for him, so he took a torch and went for him. When he turned the first corner he found him. He was standing still, so he approached him "Hey, what are you doing. Return to your position!" he ordered to the pony. At not getting a response again, he went up to him, but stopped when he heard mumbles. Apparently, they were coming from the pony, so he asked "What are you saying? I didn't heard you" he stopped when he felt breathing on the back of his neck. Turning quickly, he didn't saw anypony. Felling the breath again, he turned his head to find Discord sitting on his back. He appeared to be chewing something and he said with his mouth full "He said don't come, it's a trap". He then proceeded to take out his chewing gum from his mouth and sticking it all over the guard. At first the guard was disgusted with the action, but when he tried to move away from the draconequus, he found that he couldn't. "Concrete flavored gum. Not one of my favorites, but it surely is effective" Discord commented before going for the room with Fernando in it. Before entering, he made a can with the picture of a laughing pony laughing appear with a snap of his fingers. He then started to read the warnings "Let's see... Danger, don't shake, bla bla bla, keep away from fire, bla bla bla, explosions. Okay". He snapped his fingers again and he got a match in his paw. He turned it on and put on fire the can. After shaking it, he kicked open the door and threw the can inside. Waiting some seconds, there was a loud explosion inside and when he reopened the door, there were four slightly burned guards rolling on the floor laughing their flanks off. The cage, was unaffected thanks to the chaotic magic that impregnated the can, and Fernando too was unaffected by the explosion. "You again" he thought while narrowing his eyes. "I missed you too" Discord responded sarcastically "What do you want now?" Fernando thought, the words above him literally dripping with venom. "I just came to free you as we accorded" Discord answered "And what makes you think that I will cooperate? Some hours ago the princess said that she would take me back anyway" Fernando said with a victorious tone "I'm aware of that, as well of the fact that no one of them know that you can talk nor they know how to give your voice back" Discord countered, laughing at the face that Fernando put when he said this. "Hey," Fernando thought. "why my voice didn't come back when the ponies hit me with that rainbow beam?". Discord laughed a bit more before noticing the words above the humans head. Wiping a tear from his eye, he responded in a knowing-it-all tone "That's because I didn't take away your voice" Fernando raised an eyebrow "Care to elaborate?" he suggested "Well, I knew that if they caught you, they would give your voice back, so instead of chaotically taking it away, I enhanced it, making it so high pitched that nothing can hear it". When Discord finished, Fernando was really surprised how he thought about this "If you're the spirit of disharmony, how come that you can make a plan?" Fernando asked. At the question, Discord got very serious and looked into space as if remembering something "Well, when the Elements of Harmony hit me, they locked my all of my chaotic powers. With what happened, I managed to get out, but I'll never be me again." he responded. "But why do they only locked it?" Fernando asked "Because, the harmony can't exist without chaos, and destroying it is as chaotic as it being free, just without the fun" Discord said gloomily. "If it makes you feel better, you're still insane Fernando thought very sarcastically. When he said that, he returned to his maniac look, "But I can still get more things to create chaos, and that is your work for now!" he said while pointing to him. Fernando sighed and thought "Just take me out already" Discord tried to do that, but he found that he couldn't. He tried snapping his fingers to destroy it, ramming it with a log and using dynamite, but the shield stopped everything. Seeing his failed attempts, Discord assumed a thinking position. His attention was brought to a still laughing guard that wandered over to him and started to talk. He was clearly beyond rational thought thanks to the can of laughing gas. "He he he, if you want to, ha ha, open it, ha ha ha, you'll need this, ha ha ha, key" he said while holding up a key with his hoof. Discord tried to take it, but the guard moved it away before saying "he he he, but don't ta-ha ha-ke it. You're, ha ha, supposed to be a bad guy" he continued to giggle while Discord talked "Oh, no. I couldn't harm a parasprite" he said while holding up his arms in a 'I'm harmless' way "Oh, he he, okay then" the drunken guard threw the key in the air and Discord took it. The guard proceeded to leave the room with the other guards while saying some of the worst jokes you could ever hear. "Wut da heck just happened?" Fernando thought after observing the conversation with disbelief, imagining the errors on purpose. "Oh, you know. Just a talk between gentlecolts" Discord said, not giving it importance. Discord proceeded to open the cage and to let Fernando out. Fernando walked out of the cage and exited the room. Remembering the path the guards took when bringing him, he started to go on his path to freedom, Discord closely following him, waiting for the moment to mess with him or any pony that happened to find them.