Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, 6 villains sought to overthrow Princess Twilight and her friends and take over Equestria themselves. They were defeated by a coalition of heroes, at the cost of the life of their leader, Shrinky Dink. In her honor, Shrinky’s friend, Fizzy Wings, leads this group of heroes as they recruit new heroes to help defend Equestria, dubbing their group “The Avengers”.
Two months later…
“Well, that was a bust,” said Fizzy, mildly upset.
“Yes, but even though we wasted the night, we learned her cause is valiant and right,” said Zecora, smiling.
Fizzy nodded. “True. With Kingpin running all the organized crime in Manehatten, it’s nice to know that Maredevil is fighting back, even at the cost of her reputation. Now, where did that Kirin get off to…” Fizzy looked around for their newest companion, a new recruit they had sought in the Kirin village. Autumn Blaze came galloping up, holding cotton candy in her magic. “Wow!” she said. “Is this what all pony cities are like? This is amazing. It’s very bright here. I hope it’s not like that in all pony cities, cuz then I’d go blind. Are they all bright? Tell me they aren’t all bright.”
Zecora placed a hoof over the Kirin’s rambling mouth, silencing her as she paused to take a breath, laughing. “Calm your tongue, speak nice and slow. Not all towns are all aglow.” Zecora removed her hoof from Autumn’s mouth, and the trio began walking down the sidewalk. “Now, Fizzy, before you ask, I did get started on that task.”
Fizzy looked confused for a moment before realization struck. “Oh! You mean the Goliath project?” Zecora nodded at this. “Starlight and I have made great gains. There should be no more growing pains.” Zecora emphasized the last two words, smiling as she did so. Fizzy sighed. “Puns, Zecora? Really? I thought better of you.”
Zecora laughed, and winked in response. Autumn Blaze also chuckled before asking, “So, we heading back to the train station?”
Fizzy nodded. “Yup, and from there we head to Abyssinia. We have a potential new recruit to find there.”
When they arrived at the train station, they saw white Earth pony mare, with her dark brown mane tied up in a large bun. She wore a white collar and red cravat, and she held a tied scroll in her foreleg. Raven Inkwell, former aide to Princess Celestia, and current aide to Princess Twilight. When she spotted them, she walked up to the trio. Addressing Fizzy, she said, “Ms. Fizzy, I have a message from the Princess for you.” With this, she held the scroll out to her. Fizzy took it in her magic and opened it. She read aloud,
“Dear Fizzy Wings, Zecora, and company, I have a request for you. We have received reports of Chaos magic-related incidents in Fillydelphia. I have confirmed both that these incidents were NOT caused by Discord, but instead by a unicorn who doesn’t seem to have any control over it. I would like you to locate her, and bring her to Canterlot Castle so Discord (hopefully) and I can provide assistance. Many thanks, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
When Fizzy looked up from reading, Raven had vanished. “Soooo,” began Autumn, “I guess we aren’t heading to Abyssinia.”
An hour and a half later, they arrived in Fillydelphia to an astonishing sight. The sky above the city was filled with bright pink clouds raining a brown liquid of some kind. “This kind of chaos is rather plain,” said Zecora. “Why, it’s only chocolate milk, not rain.”
Fizzy looked at Zecora. “How would you know that?”
Zecora gave her a deadpan stare. “The town I live near is an eccentric one. Plus, Discord often uses it for fun.”
Fizzy nodded. “Touché.” They walked further into the city, heading for the town square. As they made their way through the city, they could only describe their surroundings as increasingly chaotic. Buildings were missing, only to be discovered floating overhead, sometimes upside down. There were groups of birds that upon closer inspection were revealed to winged muffins. While Fizzy and Autumn were staring around with confused silence, Zecora just continued forward, unfazed. They could see ponies hiding inside, peeking through their windows. As they approached the city center, they noticed it was getting brighter. As they turned the corner to the city square, they saw a red unicorn mare, with an orange mane that faded to white. She was encased in a translucent white ball of magic, bolts of errant magic flying off, striking surrounding buildings. Winded swirled loudly around the square, kicking up debris. She hadn’t noticed the trio entering the square, but Fizzy could see she was sobbing heavily.
“Oh boy,” said Fizzy. Zecora nodded in agreement. Autumn was speechless, which Fizzy would later consider a novel occurrence. “Okay,” said Fizzy, turning to Autumn and Zecora. “We need to handle this carefully. She’s obviously unstable, though I doubt that’s through any fault of her own. If we can’t talk to her, we may have to use the magic neutralizer ring. You two, stay back, but Zecora, get that ring ready.” Zecora nodded, and with that Fizzy turned back towards the distressed unicorn.
“Hello!” she called over the din. “Miss? Can you hear me?” The unicorn looked up in shock. “Who’s there?” she asked, looking around. She spotted Fizzy, her eyes going wide. “No! You can’t be here! You’ll get hurt!”
As if responding to her cry, the torrent around her increased in strength. Bricks tore from the street, hurling at Fizzy. She dived out of the way as they flew past, but she wouldn’t have needed to. Just before passing through where she once stood, the bricks morphed into donuts with flashes, and then promptly splattered on a nearby wall.
Fizzy glanced back at the frosted carnage. “Uh…” she said, slowly turning back around. “Okay then.” She raised her voice. “I’m quite sure I’ll be fine. Now, what’s wrong?” she asked, attempting nonchalance. She failed. Behind her, Zecora facehoofed as the unstable unicorn continued sobbing.
“I don’t know!” she wailed. “My magic is out of control! I’ve become a monster!”
“Well,” began Fizzy, slowly stepping closer to the mare, sidestepping shapeshifting debris as she did so. “You don’t look like a monster to me. And you can take my word for it, cuz I definitely used to look like one.”
“I’ve hurt ponies,” said the mare, her crying starting to slow. “I’m turning the city into a disaster!”
Fizzy stepped closer. “That’s not your fault. This is chaos magic. Ponies aren’t supposed to be able to control it. I’m not even sure how you can do it, to be frank.”
The mare sniffed, the whirlwind starting to slow. “It started a couple of months ago. It was nothing big, so I kept it quiet. But it slowly got worse. I kept trying to hide it, but yesterday, it just exploded out of me and turned the city into a nightmare.” As she spoke, Fizzy slowly kept forward. The swirling air had died to a subtle breeze, and the mare was slowly descending, the magic bubble around her dissipating.
“Well, I’ll tell you what. If you come with me, I can get you to ponies who can help. Who want to help.” As the mare softly landed on the ground laying down, Fizzy extended a hoof out to her.
“Nopony can help me,” said the mare, turning away.
“I think you put too little faith in the Princess,” said Fizzy. At that, the mare turned around. “The Princess wants to help me?”
“Well, yeah,” said Fizzy. “She wants to help everyone, even at her own detriment. But I digress. Yes, the Princess wants to help you. And she sent us to come get you.” At that, she waved a hoof at Zecora and Autumn Blaze, signaling to them that they could come over. She offered her other hoof at the mare, who accepted it. Fizzy pulled her to her hooves as Zecora and Autumn drew close.
“Hello there, my unicorn friend,” said Zecora, trotting up to the mare. “I’m glad to see this had a pleasant end.” Zecora smiled at her.
The mare didn’t return the smile. “But it didn’t,” she said. She gestured around her. “Half the city is still either in the air or upside down. Or both.”
A voice tinged with mischief and tomfoolery floated through the air. “Oh yes, it's quite marvelous, isn’t it?” With a white flash, a strange, mismatched creature appeared in their midst.
“Discord, I presume,” said Fizzy. He bowed dramatically, a top hat appearing in his hand with a flash. “In the flesh,” he said. “Now,” he started, straightening back up “I’m to bring you four back to Canterlot on at the request of Sparkle-butt.”
Fizzy blinked, with Autumn snickering in the background. “You know what,” she said. “I’m not gonna question it for my own sake.”
Discord grinned mischievously. “Good idea,” he said condescendingly, patting her on the head with a bit too much force. He raised his claw in preparation to snap. “Now, let’s be on our way. But first, let’s fix the city for Twilight gets mad at me.” He snapped his claw, and with a flash, the city looked like it normally would, free of chocolate milk rain and floating buildings. With a second snap, a white light engulfed them suddenly. And as quickly as it appeared it was gone, but their surroundings had changed. They now stood in the throne room of Canterlot Castle, with Princess Twilight Sparkle giving them a perplexed look from the throne. Raven stood beside her, also looking mildly surprised.
Twilight’s confusion vanished when her eyes fell on Discord, exchanging befuddlement for an eye-roll. She turned her attention to Fizzy, who was still trying to shake the disorientation from the teleport. “So, I presume you found the pony I asked you to?”
Fizzy nodded, trying to blink the spots from her vision. “Yeah, your majesty. She’s right here… somewhere…” Fizzy turned around as her vision cleared, and spotted the mare in question, obscured by Zecora and Autumn. Fizzy waved her forward, and she obliged. She stepped out and bowed. “Hello, Your Majesty.”
Twilight looked immensely uncomfortable, but didn’t say anything about it. She instead got right on topic as the mare rose back up. “So, you’ve been having trouble with Chaos magic?”
The mare nodded. Twilight turned to Discord. “Well, since they’re all here, now will you explain what happened?”
Discord nodded and snapped his fingers. In a flash of light, a large chalkboard appeared, floating in midair. Draw on the board were small illustrations. One was of Grogar’s Bewitching Bell, another was of himself, and a third was of the red unicorn. There was also one of who Fizzy thought might be Shrinky Dink.
“So,” began Discord, who was now wearing a tweed coat and a bowtie, giving himself the appearance of a college professor. “When the Legion of Doom absorbed every-creature’s magic, my own included, the Bell held that magic.” He drew a circle around the Bell and one around his doodle-self, with an arrow going from his circle to the Bell’s. “But when the magic was returned to everyone, not all the magic was released. The Bell retains small portions of the magic it absorbs. Small enough to be insignificant on an individual basis. But since it absorbed so much magic, and already had a sizeable store to begin with, when Shrinky here…” he then drew a circle around Shrinky, with her own arrow going towards the Bell. “…destroyed the Bell…” he then erased the Bell, drawing an exploded one in its place. “… the magic in the Bell released all magic it had contained within in the form of a shockwave…” he then drew arrows of varying sizes radiating out from the circle around the Bell. “…and the bit of Chaos magic stored in the Bell from me went to you,” he said, looking at the red mare while simultaneously drawing a line going from the Bell to the drawing of the mare in question.
Princess Twilight nodded in understanding. “So that explains why creatures are popping up all over Equestria with magical abilities, or at least, enhancements, that by all reason, they shouldn’t have.”
Discord nodded. “Precisely,” he said. Twilight continued, “So, Discord, since you managed to explain that in a fairly straight-forward way without breaking any-creature’s brain, I want you to teach… uh… I’m sorry, but I don’t recall hearing your name,” said Twilight to the mare. Fizzy mentally kicked herself for not asking. “Oh,” said the mare. “Uh, my name is Firebrand, Your Highness.”
Twilight nodded before restarting her sentence. “Discord, I want you to teach Firebrand how to use Chaos magic.”
“No,” said Discord, almost immediately.
“Excuse me?” asked Twilight, taken aback. “What do you mean, ‘No’?”
“I mean: No. I can’t teach her.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Can’t, or won’t?”
“I can’t,” said Discord, raising his claw and paw defensively. “The way she uses and controls Chaos magic is drastically different from how I do it,” explained Discord. “It would be like trying to teach a dog how to fly.”
Before anyone could say anything, Zecora stepped forward, eyeing Discord suspiciously. He leaned down as if to say something, probably snarky, but before he could open his mouth, she reached out a hoof and laid it on his chest, closing her eyes. Discord glanced at Fizzy, frozen in his forward-leaning position. “What in Equestria is she doing?” he hissed. Fizzy shrugged.
“Oh, I know,” said Autumn Blaze. “Before the Kirin went through the Stream of Silence, we used to have a strong diplomatic relationship with the Zebras. She’s using Zebra magic to see if he’s lying or not. It’s really cool, Zebra magic.” Everypony stared at her. “What?” she asked. “Just because I’m admittedly a bit scatterbrained… okay, more than a bit scatterbrained, it doesn’t mean I’m not smart or that I don’t know things.”
Fizzy opened her mouth to protest that she hadn’t remotely thought anything of the sort, but Zecora spoke up first.
“I may not be the world’s best sleuth, but I can confirm, he tells the truth.”
Discord sighed in relief, standing up straight. “I told you. But I do have something that might help.” He snapped his paw, and a small book appeared floating in front of Firebrand. She leaned over it and read the title aloud. “Chaos Magic 101, a Foal’s Guide to Ripping the Fabric of Reality. Uh…”
Discord’s head detached itself from his body, scarring everyone unaccustomed to this as it floated over to Firebrand, making her noticeably nauseous. “It’s an excellent read. I’d give it a peruse on the train ride to Ponyville.” His head vanished in a flash, and in another, it reappeared back on his body.
“Well, Discord is right about that. I imagine you’ll be heading back to Ponyville now?” asked Princess Twilight.
Fizzy nodded, “If you don’t have anything else for us.”
Twilight shook her head. “Nope. Have a nice trip,” she said, smiling.
“Ta-ta!” said Discord, smiling. He snapped his claws, and the four companions were transported to the train station with a final, blinding flash.
Fizzy rubbed her eyes, again seeing spots. “He’s only done it twice and I already hate it,” she said. The others grumbled in agreement. They boarded the Ponyville-bound train and settled in for the ride.
During the ride, Fizzy and Zecora resumed their discussion of the Goliath project, Autumn Blaze watched out the window before falling asleep, and Firebrand did indeed peruse Discord’s book. She only made one comment during the entire trip.
“This thing reads like radio instructions.”
When the train pulled into the station, the sun was beginning to set. They stepped out onto the platform, and were greeted by two familiar faces.
“Hey guys,” said Tempest, smiling as she saw Fizzy and Zecora depart the train. She glanced behind them, seeing Firebrand still puzzling out the book, and Autumn looking around excitedly, enraptured by everything. “I see you’ve got a couple of new recruits. They’re quite an odd pair, aren’t they?”
Fizzy nodded, “Yeah, it’s quite the story. I’ll fill you in when we get to the castle. How’d your mission go?” They began heading through town towards the castle.
“It went well,” said Tempest. “We just had to deal with a boring supervillain in Tall Tale. It was easy.”
“All he did was mess with gravity,” said Spector. Tempest nodded. “Yeah. It was pretty lame. All I had to do was distract him with some fireworks while Spector flew above him. Then, when he cranked up the gravity, he pulled Spector down on top of him, allowing him to put the magic inhibitor ring on him. We were done in like 10 minutes. 15, tops. We went out for ice cream after we gave him over to the authorities.”
Fizzy laughed. “Well, at least you enjoyed yourselves.” They turned towards the Castle. “So, what’s the story?” asked Tempest.
“I’ll tell you when I can tell everyone at the Castle, so I don’t have to tell it twice,” said Fizzy, before yawning.
“Fair,” said Tempest. They were silent until they reached the Castle, where Zecora had to back into town to locate Autumn Blaze, who had wandered off. Tempest led Firebrand to the library, while Fizzy and Spector headed to the Map Room. When they entered, they saw Starlight and Sunburst in deep discussion, while Dane sat in one of the surrounding chairs, trying and failing to not look bored. She glanced up when she heard the pair enter, and her demeanor brightened immediately upon seeing Fizzy. As Spector went to sit in one of the chairs, Fizzy made a beeline for Dane.
“Hi, sweetie,” said Dane as Fizzy approached. “How’d it go?” she kissed Fizzy on the cheek when she got close enough. Fizzy yawned in response to her question. Dane chuckled. “That bad, huh?” Fizzy smiled before shaking her head. “Not bad, just kind tiring. Plus, I had to deal with Discord, so…”
Dane winced in empathy. “Oooo… I can understand that.”
At the mention of Discord, Starlight and Sunburst had stopped their own discussion. “What happened with Discord?”
“I’ll explain when the others get back,” said Fizzy. A short while later, Tempest and Zecora entered. “We put Autumn Blaze in the library with Firebrand. So, what’s the dish?”
Fizzy climbed into the same chair as Dane, cuddling up to her before launching into the day’s events. After she finished, Starlight spoke up. “So, we have a Chaos magic user who can’t control it?”
“And a Kirin who can spontaneously combust at will,” said Fizzy. “I saw we give Firebrand one of the training basements to practice her Chaos magic. Also, we need a better name than ‘training basement’. That just sounds ridiculous. But we can worry about all that later.”
“Agreed,” said Dane. “This little changeling needs to go to bed. It’s past her bedtime.”
“Uh, I will have you know I don’t have a bedtime,” said Fizzy defiantly. Dane smirked, and picked up Fizzy in her magic. “Uh-huh. Sure. Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.”
Fizzy responded by blowing a raspberry at her.
“Love you too, Fizzy.”
Everyone was holding back tears as they tried to spare Fizzy’s dignity by not laughing. Even Zecora was barely able to keep it together. “Good night, lovebirds,” she said as they walked out the door. As soon as it closed, Fizzy heard them finally break as raucous laughter came from the other side. Dane herself was snickering.
As Fizzy floated in Dane’s magic, she felt herself falling asleep. She was barely awake as Dane laid her on their bed as she climbed in next to her. The last thing Fizzy was aware of was a kiss from Dane before she fell into a deep slumber.