Groaning audibly, placing a paw on his face and dragging it downwards. He glanced around at the mess of what used to be his potions room."SPIKE!" He yelled angrily and accusingly. The books that were splayed out on the floor were on fire, and screaming as they had been made sentient, flailing about trying to put themselves out. Chocolate pudding was on the walls bubbling from the heat of the room, remnants from the blast also scattered about, vials and various bottles broke.
Fortunately, a majority of the shelves were safe thanks to his quick thinking, it takes an extreme amount of effort to perfect these potions and contrary to popular belief or what ponies would like to think, he can not just conjure up magic potions on his own will. It took patience, magical ability and many rare ingredients to make them.
"I- I DIDNT MEAN TO! IM SORRY!" The little purple dragon retorted as he tried to put out a small flame on his tail. He ran over to the wall and pressed his tail against the chocolate pudding and it sizzled out, still burning a little from the temperature.
"WHAT IN TARNATION?" a thick country voice came to the ears of the two.
"Applejack get that walking hazard OUT of my potions room!" The Draconequus pointed at Spike who was still sucking on his tail. Spike just scowled.
"I was just doing my job!" Spike said in a huff, but immediately regretted it when he was met with the Lord's own scowl.
Applejack, an earth mare, with a silky blonde main like straw, and a bright orange coat, 3 apples for her cutie mark and wearing an orange cotton dress, simple in design and a cowhide hat on her head looked in frustration at both the little dragon and the Lord. "Alright how bout Y'all calm down and tell me what happened here."
" I LOVE the renovation you're doing!!"
You could almost hear his eyes roll at the pink earth mare that had just bounced into the room behind Applejack. She had a frizzy deep pink mane and a lighter coat to match, blue eyes and a cutie mark of 3 balloons, and was wearing a deep pink and white gown that was too frilly for his liking. 'How does she even walk in that.' He found himself wondering.
"Hey Applejack, I bet chocolate pudding! Hand it over!"
Applejack huffed, rolled her eyes and tossed a gold bit over to the eccentric pink mare. "Darn it, Ya guessed lucky this time Pinkie Pie." The pink mare, Pinkie Pie, squeed in delight and tucked her gold bit into her dress. "Now ah will ask again, what happened here... this time?" Applejack continued.
"This, THIS, Insufferable overgrown fire-breathing gecko just made the entirety of my work go up in flames!!"
Spike and The Draconquus erupted into a loud uproar and were talking over each other loudly, the books still screaming on the floor, Applejack couldn't make out a single word and was backing away slowly from the squabble. "LOUD NOISES!" Pinkie added unhelpfully, wanting to get in on the chaos.
Twilight and Rarity burst through the door and gasped at the mess, shooting a glance to the poor country mare who was clearly in over her head. The situation at hoof clearly escalating. "EVERYPONY CALM DOWN!" Twilight yelled in a booming voice which caused all the noise to cease, aside from the burning books painful howls. Twilight gasped "NOT THE BOOKS!" she grabbed a jug of water from a side table in the corner and frantically ran around the room putting them out. Each book let out a sigh of relief at this.
Rarity looked at Spike who was cradling his slightly charred tail. "Oh, poor spikey-wikey! What happened?"
"That's what ah've been trying ta find out." Applejack said.
Twilight dropped the now empty jug of water to the floor, all the books now flameless. "Explain yourself, Discord."
The Draconequus, Discord, Growled in further annoyance. 'Its like they're accusing moi, MOI? The Lord of Chaos?'
"Now usually I enjoy a bit of chaos like this, BUT NOT AT THE COST OF MY WORK!" he roared, at twilight and turned to Spike in fury.
"I just got a letter is all! and as Everypony knows fire comes with any letter that comes through or goes out." Spike said matter-a-factly. "The flame managed to catch one of his potions and well..." Spike looked around at the mess. "It had a reaction." He finished.
"You know my vials are fragile!"
"IM SORRY!"
"You will be, so help me, Celestia!"
Twilight let out a groan and massaged her temple. "Look, It was an accident, Discord."
Discord crossed his arms, looked at the wall, still covered in pudding and snarled. "And Spike you shouldn't have been so close to his work anyway, what were you doing in here?" Discord then turned his attention back to the little dragon with a grin, happy to have been stood up for if only slightly.
"I was bored, I don't know when I'm going to get a letter, I'm not all-powerful ya know!" Spike raised his claws defensively.
"Speaking of which, give me that." Discord snatched the scroll from the floor, it had escaped the carnage. His eyes darted left to right reading it over and groaned loudly, pinching his nose between his amber eyes.
"What does it say?" Rarity enquired. trying to sneak a peak.
Pinkie stopped licking the pudding off the wall, "An invitation to a party!!?" She asked enthusiastically.
"No." Discord said. "We will be expecting a visit from a royal pain sometime in the next week or so." There were a series of chatter at this, and he looked up to the mares in the room, "it's getting far too crowded in this castle for my liking" He muttered under his breath. "I expect all of you to keep to your rooms for a period of time.'
Pinkie pouted, her hair deflating. "Awwwww" She brushed her chocolate covered hooves against the floor in a kicking motion, smearing more mess on the marble. The rest of the mares looked at one another before simply nodding. "Understood." Said Twilight.
Discord snapped his eagle talon and the Chaos of the room disappeared, causing Pinkie to pout even more so. He looked at the array of broken vials he couldn't prefabricate, Fire-Heart had been one of them, a potion often in demand from the court, good for burning out old dead crops and defences against the Everfree. "I best get to work then." He remarked cuttingly.
And he snapped his fingers again and was gone.
A bright purple light slit through the air of the library, Discord stepped out with ease. He clicked his tongue and went to the shelf to the right of his throne, running a paw along the shelves. It felt warm to touch for some reason, a feeling he never usually got from doing this routine and he swore his heart skipped a beat.
Discord found himself smiling for no apparent reason, and he pulled out a fur bound a red book that contained instructions for re-creating fire-heart. Looking it over his smile disappeared. Discord noticed his paw didn't have any dust on it, and come to think of it, neither did the shelf of which he pulled the book from.
Scanning it over he counted them through, he never put them in order, but he knew their locations off by heart, then he paused, glaring silently, his amber and red eyes lit like fire, at the now empty slot on the shelf.
In a second flash he was back in the potions room, the group were already done tidying up a few things Discord missed, and Twilight didn't even have time to think before she found herself raised up back against the wall, an eagle talon wrapped around her neck. She wiggled a writhed in his grasp, gasping for breath. The others dropped whatever they were doing and collectively gasped in shock.
"WHERE IS IT?!" He demanded from Twilight, who was attempting to pry his grip from her throat with her hooves.
"I -What -are you-" She said between gasps.
"Don't play coy with me! The book, Star Swirls book! Where is it?"
"I-Don't - Know! I-don't have- it!" She was starting to fade in colour.
"LET GO OF HER! - you, YOU BRUTE! Rarity screeched as she pounded her hooves on his backside.
Discord dropped her and she fell to the ground beneath, drawing sharp breaths and sputtering, massaging her small neck where he had held with such strength. Discord turned to rarity and pushed her away and she stumbled to the floor as well. "HEY! What gives!?" Pinkie shouted at him before coming over to Rarity's aid followed by Spike. Applejack came to Twilights side and wrapped her hooves around her and looked up at him..
"Ya know none of us, includin you, can even read that book, so what the hay would we do with it?" Applejack said through gritted teeth.
Discord threw his arms in the air, "Well if you didn't take it, who did?!"
Twilight drew in a small breath, "Fluttershy... " her eyes widened in realisation. Now she's done it! how could I have been so stupid to have left her alone in that room, why.. why would she have taken it? She thought to herself in despair.
Unfortunately, this caught Discords attention. "Fluttershy..?" He said slyly, through clenched teeth, His paw and eagle talon also clenching, into fists. Twilight gulped, she hadn't meant for him to hear her say the name. "So, you've met the village mare?" He said quietly, frighteningly.
"N-no, I mean- who?" She laughed nervously, her ears flattening at this scary sight.
"Don't lie to me Twilight, You're as bad at it as Applejack."
"It's my fault!" Rarity interjected. "I took her down to the library to get a book to pass the time and-"
"YOU TOO?!" Discord cut her off. "What have I told you all, STAY AWAY from the Chaos born mares!"
"But why Discord!? You said so yourself that this could be the one! That this one is special, the missing link!? Do you know how hard it been to keep away from the ponies you take for 10 years!" Rarity said, still being held by pinkie and embracing her back. "Besides, she took an animal book, not the other one."
"COULD BE, I said she COULD BE, but I'm still not completely sure of it! As for the book well it looks like one wasn't quite enough for her liking." Discord drew in a deep breath and stated in a calm tone that clearly still held so much anger, ' It been a few days, I think its time I pay the little mare a visit." And he snapped his talon for the third time today and disappeared again.
Rarity and Twilight looked at one another. "What have we done?" they said in unison.