//------------------------------// // Ignorance Is Not Always Bliss // Story: Book 2: To Bring About Chaos // by Medley of MLP //------------------------------// To Bring About Chaos Ignorance Is Not Always Bliss     All I can say is… I managed to completely fuck this up. Not sure how, or even why, but I managed to do it. Now, I know this is all just written by me, for me, with no one really reading these things, but I know a question someone would ask: What, pray tell, did you do? Well, answering that question is kinda difficult. So I suppose a good place to start is… well, the start.     As is normally the case, it was a pretty nice day out. The weather for the next couple of days were scheduled to be nice and warm, with good overcast. Perfect picnic weather, to be honest. As I knew this well enough in advance, I decided to take the initiative for once and ask Sparkella out to just talk and munch on some food, and overall chillax. I think we all kind of needed it after Spike’s Birthday Disaster. And boy wasn’t that a mess to clean up.     Still, the sheer novelty of going on a picnic and not having to deal with a monster or friendship problem was too tempting to pass. Apparently, it was also too tempting for Murphy not to enact his Law and proceed to start trashing it completely.     “Medi?” Sparkella started slowly after munching on her daisy sandwich for a little bit. “I was wondering about something.”     That, admittedly, should have, and now does, set off many alarms in my head, but hey, it was a pretty relaxful day, and I wasn’t exactly in the mood to be thinking too hard over something. So, like the fool I was, and some say still are, I answered back without a doubt. “Yes Sparkella?”     “What exactly did you do for fun when you were on Earth?” Sparkella questioned.     That threw me for a loop, since I thought we’d all just come to a silent agreement not to talk about my life on Earth, as it really isn't relevant anymore. Until today, apparently, with a random question to boot. Nevertheless, I thought about it for a bit before answering.     “Well… sometimes I’d pick a book and just read for a couple hours while music played in the background. Only problem is that I eventually read all I had, since I only had a small selection when I moved out. Outside of that, it was mainly video games.”     “Like the arcade games, except at home?”     At that, I gave a small snort. “I don’t think I could have afforded an arcade machine, but even if I did, nope. It was a lot more high-tech than that, letting someone play out entire worlds. Kinda like what you saw with my memories, except you could interact a lot more.”     “What kind of games were available?” Now it seems this really piqued her interest.     At this point, I should have been well aware what some ponies would think of the games that I had. But I was pretty excited to talk about something I really enjoyed that couldn’t quite be replicated here in Ponyville.     “Well… there’s a bunch of different genres, kinda like books. You have your basic ones, like strategy, puzzle, FPS’, RPG’s-”     “Wait, wait, what was that third one? F P S?” She looked pretty confused at that one.     “Oh, First Person Shooter, sorry, way too used to the technical terms. Anyways, I-” I mindlessly filled her in on the acronym before my mind caught up with me.     Judging from the look of complete shock on her face, that was definitely not the wisest move on my part. But in fairness, she did ask! Although, to be fair to me as well, I should’ve had a little more tact than basically shrugging it off like no big deal.     “That’s a form of entertainment?!” Twilight screeched furiously. “I thought you said that you wanted nothing to do with that!”     That stunned me for a moment before I looked right back with a steely gaze. “I never said such things. I really do not like being violent in real life. But a game. Isn’t. Real. Life.”     “Then why in Celesita’s name would you see shooting other living beings as a form of enjoyment?!” She growled back.     At this point, we were both standing up and glaring each other down before I gave a small huff, and started to walk away before being harshly yanked back by magic.     “Oh no buster! We’re going to be finishing this little discussion!” Twilight snarled.     “Fine, you want the fucking reasons? I’ll give ‘em to you!” I harshly bit back.     At this point, I really don’t know where exactly the conversation went, but I do know that we both had some pretty harsh things to say to each other. It all came to a head when she slapped me upside the head hard and teleported away, making me rub my chin as I dashed off with the leftover picnic stuff.     “Of all the- Why on earth would she- AAAAAAAAAGH!” I yelled as I threw the picnic stuff on the kitchen counter, storming up to my room. “You know what? I’ve had it! So much for doing stuff like that anymore! Maybe it’s time I got a new romantic partner! One that won’t NAG AT ME!”     I was in a complete huff as I threw myself into the music, completely shutting out the rest of the world as I aggressively worked on my songs. And worked. And worked. And worked. To the point where it felt like no time had passed whatsoever, yet I could feel it. By the time I was anywhere near calm, it took me by surprise a little to see that a whole day had passed and I hadn’t noticed.     So it was with some trepidation that I walked out the door, into the blinding sunlight… and immediately stumbled into somepony.     “Woah there buddy, watch your step! Especially hungover.” A stallion’s voice called out as he helped me up.     “Sorry… got really invested and really lost track of time…” I mumbled an apology as my vision started to come back.     I had to admit, he wasn’t a bad-looking stallion. Certainly no Big Mac or Braeburn, but he did have a little charm to him. A tannish pegasus that had a dark brown mane, he could almost pass off as normal. But his Cutie Mark was certainly something to look at, seeing as it was a pony’s face blindfolded, along with question marks over their head. I then started to realize I was probably staring and shook my head.     “Hey, no problem, my main dude. Who might you be?” The stallion held out a hoof to shake.     “Medley. You seem new to Ponyville. Might I get a name as well?” I responded, shaking his hoof.     “Nescientor. And… kinda, yeah. Got a little lost reading the map, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out sometime soon. Least I got the name of the town, since I couldn’t understand that pink pony that ran away from me earlier.”     “Ah, I see you’ve met Pinkie already. Yeah, she’s like that sometimes, we just kinda roll with it.”     “Works for me. Anyhow, mind showing me around since I got someone’s attention finally?”     “Yeah, sure, follow me.”     And like that, it seemed, I made an instant friend. At least, for the first hour or so, it felt like an awesome time, showing someone around Ponyville. But then niggling doubts started to come up that I ruthlessly set aside.     One of the bigger ones was him wanting to see if there were places similar to his hometown. Initially, not a bad thing, since one can get comfort from familiar pastimes and places. The problem started to arise as he looked uninterestedly at the bowling alley and the arcade, even though it was specifically what he requested. Nevertheless, I set it aside as just a “new town” feeling and continued on.     The second major one came up the very next day after checking in with him. Turns out, he completely blew off Pinkie’s party, just moving his stuff in and crashing for the night. Now, with everypony else I knew, it pretty much was a guarantee that you’d be spending at least a little of the night partying at Pinkie’s before getting to sleep. So for someone not to would mean either very deliberate action, or chalked up to being a heavy sleeper. I decided against my better judgement to go with the latter, and tried to get to know him a little better.     Then not a week or two later, the third and final flag went up when Zecora came into town to gather some supplies not readily available in the Everfree Forest. He pointedly looked anywhere but in her direction, and when she left, gave me an odd look. “So, what’s up with that?”     “What do you mean?” I looked at him confusedly.     “That… thing. The witch doctor. You guys seriously let her into town?” He scoffed.     “OK, what’s your problem with her? She’s a nice zebra, and we talked numerous times.” My hackles were starting to rise, but it seems he point blank refused to acknowledge it.     “Just saying, can’t normally trust them in cities. Tend to steal some things, and claim ignorance whenever they’re caught red-hoofed. Plus, none of them can speak right, or even straightforward!” He complained, ponies around us giving a wider berth now.     And of course that was the exact moment Twilight came walking by, looking at the situation in puzzlement before quickly heading over.     “Oh, hi there! You must be the new pony Pinkie was talking about! I’ve been meaning to ask you some questions…” She trailed off as she noticed me.     “Hi Twilight.” I flatly said to her, trying my best to look stone-faced.     “Oh. Hello there, Medley.” She replied in the same kind of tone.     Now the place was definitely empty of anypony, with the exception of me, Twilight, and Nescientor. The tension was thick enough that one could probably cut it with a knife. Unfortunately for Nescientor, he used a chainsaw to cut it down.     “Well heya there, sweet cheeks. Now I wish I’d gone to that party if you were there.” Nescientor preened, much to Twilight’s and my ire.     “The name is Twilight. And who might you be?” She responded in a frigid voice I never really heard before.     “Name’s Nescientor, but you’re free to call me whatever you like, little filly.” He tried to put off a charming air, but we weren’t really having any of it.     “Thank you ever so kindly, Nescientor.” Her sharp tone didn’t seem to dissuade him, and I immediately stepped in front of him, giving a small glare.     “Hey now. I’m her coltfriend, she’s very clearly not interested, so back. Off.” I warned him, and this prompted an angry look.     “Really? Your annoying ass is her coltfriend? Get real, featherduster. Someone like her obvious deserves someone like me, not someone that nags constantly about boring crap.” He growled.     “I assure you that I am. I don’t know what the hell I found so attractive about you, but clearly, you’re just semi-decent at hiding your trash self.” Apparently this was very much the wrong thing to say, judging from this expression.     “You mean you’re one of… those… ponies?” The disgust was clear from his voice as he backed away. “Get the Tartarus away from me, freak!”     “What. Did. You. Say?” If Twilight sounded cold before, this was sub-zero levels of ice.     “You heard me! I said-” He was about to repeat himself before being encased in a magical bubble, cutting off whatever he was about to say as Twilight strolled up to him.     “You can insult me, degrade me, or whatever you feel like to me, because I heard it all before. You’ve said nothing new, and doubtlessly never will. However…” She looked him dead in the eye, and I swear I could feel her anger rolling off of her as she continued on, “...don’t you DARE say a bad thing about! My! COLTFRIEND!”     Following that, the bubble shot off high into the air, to the point where I could barely see him. I blinked in confusion before turning to her, giving a small gulp as I summoned what little courage I had to face a pissed off Twilight. But before I could speak a word, she quickly pulled me close to her, giving me a crushing hug.     “Sorry… I’m really sorry, Medi…” She whispered to me, sounding nearly broken.     “I’m sorry too… Sparkella…” I murmured back, holding close to her as well, doing my best to contain the flood of emotions running through me.     It took us a while to finally be able to talk, but when we finally parted, she looked serious.     “I know I had no right to yell at you like that, but…” She looked downcast     “I understand, Sparkella.” My mouth twitched into a small smile before returning to neutral. “To be fair, I didn’t exactly make the situation better. Remember, I did have a life before, and that series always inspired me a little. That you can do a lot of good and stop the past’s mistakes from ever becoming a reality once more.”     “But it’s still-!”     “I know. But these are humans were talking about. Not ponies.”     There was a moment of silence before Sparkella spoke up again. “Sorry for yelling at you… and assuming the worst.”     “And for what it’s worth… I apologize as well, for blowing up at you over something like that.” I gave a small smile again as I nuzzled her. “What say we go out for a bit and catch a movie. I’ll let you piiiiiiick~”     She gave a small laugh as she pulled me along with her magic. “Oh you’re so gonna regret that, Medi. Cause I’ve been wanting to watch this one for a while now! The Mane Attraction!”     I dramatically gasped and feigned trying to escape from her magical grip. “Noooooooo! Anything but that! Mercy! Mercyyyyyyy!”     We ended up having a small laugh at that before calming down, where I then remembered a small, but not quite insignificant detail.     “Hey, Sparkella? Did you really shoot him up high in the air? While still in the bubble?” I questioned.     “Oh… him. Well, the bubble wouldn’t last that long. And pegasi can land on clouds, so he’ll be fine. Shaken up, but fine.” She waved a hoof nonchalantly.     Deciding to not further test her patience with him and for the sake of the newly kindled bond between us, I let the matter be as we headed towards the movie. It’s only now while I’m writing this that I do slightly worry about him. Even if he did say some -truly awful rubbish-, as Rarity would put it. While I hoped I’d never see him again, knowing my luck in life, it was really only a matter of time before he reappeared, except now very much pissed off at me and at Sparkella. End of Chapter 7