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// Chapter 4.Twilight 
// Story: Discord's Heir 
// by Forum Explorer 
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“Show me the book that contains the spell for transforming apples into oranges.” A book appeared, Twilight fetched it, read the parts she wanted, and placed it near the growing pile.

“Show me the book with the method to break through anti magic restraints.” The process repeats. Spell after spell is memorized by Twilight, who spends hour after hour reading. Occasionally she’d summon some more food and water. Eventually though her eyes began to droop as started to get tired.

“Show me the book that contains the spells to remove my need for sleep,” she commanded the orb. Twilight began reading the book and memorized the difficult and dangerous spell. Deciding to rest before trying it, she conjured up a blanket and pillow before making a nest out of her books and going to sleep. When she awoke, she immediately looked at the spell again. She read the consequences of her actions, and finding that the spell doubled her study time, she cast it. Her horn lit up, creating a nebula of sparkling light in the air, and with some effort, she twisted it, forcing it through her ears. There was a pressure, and it felt like her head was in a vice, before it all finally gave way with a pop. Twilight’s eyes watered, and she sneezed loudly.

“That wasn’t too bad,” Twilight said, sniffing. “Let’s see what other improvements I can make. Show me a book with spells to permanently make me stronger.” A new book appeared, and Twilight quickly summoned it.

“This is really complex…” she muttered, as she read. “And the consequences, no. No, this one is a bad idea,” Twilight concluded, putting the book down. “But maybe I’m thinking about it wrong. Show me the book that will temporarily transform me into a dragon.”

Yet another book is read, but this one leaves her smiling. “Yes, that’s more like it. And this whole transformation idea is so fascinating. Show me the books that contain spells where I transform into something else.” Moments later a virtual cloud of books float through the air towards Twilight, who neatly stacks them around her, locking her in a wall of books.

“Let’s see, griffon, breezie, changling-wait really? Oh, that’s disgusting! Even Chrysalis should have standards. I guess that version of her didn’t. Umm, seapony, a tree, diamond dog, a human? What’s a human? Hmm, from the description it almost sounds like what Paradox is. I should check up on that later, see if they have any weaknesses we can exploit. A manticore, a spider, a Pegasus, an Alicorn?” Twilight dropped the book she was reading. “I turn into an alicorn?” she repeated, picking up the book and reading further, flipping pages frantically as she scanned the book.

“Only temporarily but…did it have to be? How about a permanent transformation?” Twilight browsed through her books, before finding one with what she sought. “Princess Twilight, a biography. The Princess of Friendship, Protector of Equestria, I like the sound of these titles. I wonder what else I accomplished in this timeline? Made peace with the Yaks, restored Griffonstone, hee hee,” Twilight giggled to herself. “And married Princess Celestia!?” Twilight slammed the book closed.

“That, that can’t be right,” Twilight said, laughing softly to herself. “I must have misread things, that’s all,” Twilight opened the book back up and reread the page she was on. She almost immediately slammed the book shut again. “Ehehe, well it’s not like that’s possible in this timeline right? I mean, Paradox said this was all possible futures so I guess there are some really weird ones. See, I’ll just look at another book and it’ll be more reasonable.”

Twilight grabbed a book at random and read her future. “I end up marrying both Luna and Celestia!” she shrieked. “No! That’s even weirder then before. See this one I end up with, ugh Trixie?” she said, grabbing a fresh book. “Here I’m with some random guard, then here’s one with Big Mac, and so on and so forth. This is just a waste of time,” Twilight grumbled, pushing over her wall of books and letting in collapse into a pile with a thud.

“I should be focused on what’s real, instead of a bunch of possibilities. In fact, I should’ve done this much earlier,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “Where are the Elements of Harmony?” she asked the orb. It quickly showed a picture of an overgrown mound of vines and ferns. The picture slowly zoomed out revealing the jungle that had consumed Canterlot’s Royal Gardens. The picture zoomed out further, showing the ongoing battle between the Royal Guard and the encroaching wildlife.

“That’s awful,” Twilight muttered, frowning. “But it shouldn’t be too difficult to recover the Elements of Harmony at least. Unless Paradox is preparing more traps and obstacles for us. I should check on him.” At Twilight’s command the orb shimmered and revealed Paradox. Twilight gasped in surprise. Paradox was walking in Griffonstone, but he was nearly unrecognizable from the being that Twilight had spoken to yesterday. His arms were so long they dragged on the ground, branches and vines were growing in place of his hair. He had a long tail, ending in an oversized white hand, and he had another face on the back of his head and every time he blinked his eyes would change color.

“What happened?” Twilight murmured, as she watched Paradox talk to an elderly griffon with a bad eye. The griffon opened a claw, clearly asking for money. Paradox laughed, and one of his arms shot into the sky and grabbed a cloud. Dragging it to the ground he gave it a shake, and golden coins began to rain down over the elderly griffon. The griffon gaped, before grabbing as many coins as he could and stuffing them beneath his hat. Paradox just laughed.

“Now tell me what’s wrong with this place,” Paradox said, winking at the screen Twilight was watching from. The griffon went off on a long explanation, telling Paradox all about their history and how they lost the Idol of Boreas to the Arimaspi and where it fell into the gorge. Paradox smiled and headed over to the gorge. Spitting into the dirt, Paradox raised a hand, and as he did, the bottom of the gorge rose with it. Within minutes, what was once a perilous gorge was now a flat plain with a merry river flowing through it. Paradox walked over a picked up the golden idol, inspecting it.

“That’s it? It’s just made of gold. No fancy magic powers, no mystic significance, nothing. How boring,” Paradox sighed, before grinning. “Well I can fix that!” Paradox clenched his hand around the idol which glowed with a brilliant rainbow light. When he released it, the idol kept glowing with a faint golden light. “Here, catch,” he said, tossing it to the old griffon. The griffon dropped the coins he was carrying and caught the idol.

The griffon glowed with a brilliant golden light, as lightning shot from the clear sky and engulfed him. His feathers gleamed and regrew, becoming a fierce gold. His size tripled, and his beak and claws became diamond.

“There! Now that’s more like it,” Paradox said in satisfaction. “Now the idol will empower the last griffon to touch it. You are now stronger, tougher, bigger, and ageless. So long as you don’t let anyone else touch the idol. Now go on and rebuild Griffonstone.” Paradox then blinked out of existence. Twilight drew her head back started, as the vision in the orb began to swirl. A minute later, the picture reformed. Now it showed Trixie holding a pick as she chipped away at a gigantic bolder. Suddenly the bolder cracked in half and a blue gas poured out. It swirled around Trixie, before gathering together into a large cloud, which eventually turned into Paradox. But now his skin was blue, and his legs were nothing more then blue vapor.

“You have freed me from my imprisonment!” Paradox boomed. “In gratitude, I shall grant you one wish.”

“I wish for unlimited wishes,” Trixie said, with no hesitation.

“Unlimited fishes? Okay, weird wish, but your wish is granted,” Paradox said, clapping his hands together. The universe shook, and Twilight yelped as her pile of books toppled on top of her. She couldn’t see what happened next, but when she pushed the books away, a living fish landed on her face. Looking up, she saw a cloud floating far in the air. Every now and then, a fish would fall from the cloud. Returning her attention to the orb, she saw the same scene being repeated in Trixie’s location. A dozen clouds had formed as fish began to drop and flop around.

“There. A wish granted, and world hunger solved at the same time,” Paradox nodded in satisfaction.

“Not fishes you dunderhead! Wishes!” Trixie yelled. Paradox chucked and picked Trixie up with an oversized hand. The pony yelped in fear as Paradox was suddenly the size of a gigantic dragon.

“I know what you meant Trixie,” Paradox said, smiling at the pony that now fit in the palm of his hand. “I just felt like playing a little joke. Now let me make this clear. I’m offering you a wish out of gratitude. Not because I’m following some sort of weird compulsion or genie law. Try and abuse my generosity again and I’ll leave you with a curse instead. Understand?” Trixie nodded, eyes wide. “Glad to hear it. Or see it, in this case. Now let’s see if we can figure out what you need.”

“What Trixie needs is the power to show Twilight Sparkle whose boss,” Trixie said, raising her snout.

“Why?” Paradox asked.

“Why? Why? Because Twilight Sparkle showed up Trixie! Now everypony believes Trixie is a fraud and laughs at her. They vandalize my wagon, mock me behind my back, and refuse to come to my shows!”

“Hmph, and she blames me for all of that?” Twilight said, grumpily.

“Sure, but none of that is Twilight’s fault,” Paradox said.

“You tell her,” Twilight cheered.

“Really, it seems more like you need some way to show ponies that you are amazing. I mean, let’s say I made you super powerful, and then you went and beat up Twilight. Ponies still wouldn’t like you. I mean most still wouldn’t believe that you actually did it, since they think you’re a fraud. And the rest would be angry at you, because Twilight is a hero of Equestria, and beating up on her is a villainous thing to do,” Paradox continued. “But I think I’ve got just what you need,”

“What is it?” Trixie asked, looking up at Paradox suspiciously.

“A little transformation to make you more impressive,” Paradox said. Trixie’s eyes widened in panic. “Oh, don’t worry. If you don’t like it, I’ll change you back,” Paradox promised. He closed his fist around Trixie and squeezed. Trixie yelped in pain, but a moment later Paradox and Trixie were both standing back on the field where they started. Only now, Trixie was sporting a large pair of wings.

“Behold the Great and Powerful Princess Trixie!” Paradox said, dramatically. Trixie flapped her new wings once or twice before grinning.

“Hahahahaha, oh this is wonderful! I can’t wait to see the look on Twilight Sparkle’s face,” Trixie laughed.

“Enjoy,” Paradox said, grinning. “Now I’m off to go do some more good deeds,” Paradox added, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Twilight stared blankly, completely shocked by what just happened.

“How is that a good deed?” she asked the empty room. “I mean, sure Trixie’s happy, and yeah, I don’t think many ponies are going to make fun of Trixie anymore, but he didn’t really address the reason why ponies started making fun of Trixie.” Twilight rubbed her aching head. “Well, I guess he’s trying at least. Maybe if he somepony were to guide him onto a better path, he might end up being a real force for good. Well, no sense leaving it as a mystery. Orb, show me the books that contain the futures in which we befriend Paradox and don’t use the Elements of Harmony on him.”

Minutes later, Twilight had a stack of fresh books by her side, as she began to read. She skimmed through one book and carelessly tossed it aside, frowning. The next book met with the same result. And the next. And the next. Finally, when Twilight reached for the next book, she found nothing but the hard floor at her side.

“Not a single good result. Every time there is nothing but disaster and mayhem if Paradox remains free,” Twilight muttered to herself. “But why?”