Twilight was relaxing with a nice book when she heard a frantic knocking on her front door.
She put a bookmark in and teleported to the entrance.
When she opened the door she saw Mayhem, Discord, and Fluttershy standing there.
Mayhem looked to be close to a panic attack. The other two were more subdued, but they also looked very concerned.
“What happened?” she asked, skipping the pleasantries.
“We need to talk!” said Mayhem. “Now! It’s an emergency… I think.”
“You ‘think?’ Well, come on in.”
As soon as they closed the threshold of the entranceway Mayhem slammed the door shut.
Twilight chose to ignore it. “What happened?” she asked again.
“Daddy is rejecting me!”
Her eyes went up to Discord. “Why?” she asked. “I don’t like family squabbles either, but this doesn’t exactly seem like an emergency.”
“What are you talking about?” Mayhem asked. “I’m not fighting with my family.”
“You just said Discord is rejecting you.”
“He is!”
“And what would you call that?”
“Mayhem,” said Fluttershy, “I think a demonstration is in order. Twilight is mixing up what you mean by rejection.”
He nodded. “Mommy doesn’t like to leave me home alone, so when her and Daddy are busy I have to go home. I don’t like it, but it makes her feel better, so I go along with it.”
Twilight put her hoof up. “Okay, so before I mix anything else up, you’re also referring to two different definitions of ‘home’ here, correct? I believe in the past ‘going home’ was the idiom for Mayhem returning to Discord.”
Fluttershy nodded. “That’s correct.”
Twilight nodded in return. “Continue.”
Mayhem also nodded. “Okay.
“Today Mommy was supposed to go hang out with Applejack, and Daddy had a meeting with Princess Celestia. We had all just eaten lunch and were getting ready to leave when the problem started.”
“And that problem is…?”
“I can’t go home! Watch.”
He snapped, and his body dissolved into magic particles. They headed for Discord, but when it touched him they were deflected and only went around him.
After a short time of repeating this from other angles Mayhem reformed.
Twilight had a curious look on her face. “Has this ever happened before?”
He shook his head. “Never!”
“Well, that is unusual, but I don’t see where the emergency comes in.”
“I only exist through Daddy’s magic. If I can’t go home then it means something has changed. Maybe I’ve just been out so much, so long, that his magic is rejecting me as being part of him.”
Discord had an unusually somber look about him. “Nothing like this has ever happened before, Twilight. If my magic is rejecting him for being too separate then there’s a possibility that Mayhem is out permanently, and the next time that he uses up all his magic his consciousness won’t return to me. That will mean his death.”
The word made Mayhem shiver, and he only barely held back from breaking down. “I’m scared to use any magic now. I might not be able to use it for the rest of my life, or I’ll cease to exist.”
Twilight looked from Mayhem to Discord. She let out a little sigh. “Forgive me, but I have to consider all possibilities. You’re not, like… doing this on purpose? Like a prank?”
Discord glared at her. “No! Of course not! This is a serious matter and I want you to treat it as such!”
If Discord was being this blunt then she knew he couldn’t be behind it.
Twilight paced for a few moments. “When was the last time you went home?”
Mayhem looked thoughtful. “Like… maybe four or five days.”
“And nothing was different that time?”
He shook his head.
Twilight put a hoof to her face. “I don’t have any ideas either! I never played around with or studied chaos magic. I didn’t think I needed to, or that it was even possible to truly understand it.”
Mayhem pouted.
She heard a whimper come from him, and she stomped the hoof down. “Well, it’s never too late to start. We can’t give in to despair so long as there are still possibilities to explore.”
She turned to Discord. “Can you give Mayhem magic?”
Discord pointed at Mayhem, feeling like this was going to be fruitless, but when the stream of magic hit Mayhem it wasn’t repulsed.
“Oh!” Mayhem cried out. “I’m feeling energized.”
Twilight let out a sigh of relief. “Well, at the very least we know that Mayhem can still be recharged. Even if it’s true that Mayhem will truly disappear if he uses everything up, so long as Discord is around he can always give you some magic.”
Next she turned to Mayhem. “Can you do the same thing in reverse? Can you give Discord just your magic?”
“We’ve already seen that it won’t work,” Mayhem replied.
“Have you tried it?”
“Well… no, but-”
“Then stop arguing and try it!”
He pointed at Discord, but he was starting to feel afraid.
Twilight guessed what he was thinking. “We’ve just seen that Discord can still transfer energy to you, so you’re no longer limited to just what you have. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
He had seen it, and it made sense, but it still took all his courage to do it.
Just like when Discord had done it, the stream of magic wasn’t rejected when it hit him.
Twilight began to pace around again. “So… the two of you can still exchange magic with one another. It seems like it’s only Mayhem’s consciousness that is being rejected.”
“But why?” asked Fluttershy. “Why now?”
Twilight continued to pace around, deep in thought and mumbling to herself.
Mayhem watched her anxiously.
She suddenly paused, an idea coming to her. An idea so outlandish and absurd she would have rejected it outright if it was anyone else, but Mayhem had always been different.
Her heart started to race as she looked down at the little draconequus. If she was right about this then it would be one of the greatest feats of magic she had ever bore witness to.
The problem was in how to test her theory. If things went wrong then she might very well cause Mayhem to cease to exist altogether, and she didn’t think Pound and the rest would ever forgive her.
Still, even if the risk was there, she had to take this chance. If she was truly correct in her assumption then she could set Mayhem’s mind at ease.
Mayhem was biting his lip. Twilight was looking at him so seriously and seemed a little afraid.
Twilight looked at Discord. “Listen carefully. I need you to have a stream of magic at the ready.” She took in a sudden sharp breath. The magnitude of what she was thinking was staggering.
“Are you alright, Twilight?” asked Fluttershy with concern. “You’re looking really keyed up.”
Twilight nodded, gulping. “I have a thought… but I need to confirm it. There’s just a certain risk involved with it. If I’m wrong then Mayhem is going to start disappearing. That’s why I need Discord to be ready.”
Discord lifted a claw towards Mayhem, his serious face on. He nodded. “I’m ready.”
Twilight’s breathing went up. While she was nervous about Mayhem, she also felt like she didn’t want to cast this spell. She didn’t know if she was ready to be right.
Her horn lit up, Mayhem gently trembling.
As Twilight pointed her horn at him Mayhem cried out, “Wait!” He pointed at Discord and pulled his claw backwards. Discord slid across the floor until he was two feet from him.
He didn’t know what Twilight was going to try to do, but at least if he started to vanish he wanted Discord closer so the magic stream didn’t have to travel as far.
He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. “O-okay,” he said timidly. “I’m ready.”
A light shot out of Twilight’s horn, hitting him. Her heart was going a mile a minute, ready to break the spell if she needed to.
After a few moments Mayhem opened one of his eyes and looked around. “Am… am I okay?”
Twilight felt faint, and fell to a laying position as her legs lost the strength to support her. It had actually worked.
“Twilight!” he called out, running to her. “Are you okay? What did you do?”
Twilight heard the worry in his voice, and shook her head to focus. “Mayhem, I want you to try casting a spell.”
“Um, okay.” He snapped, but nothing happened. He got a curious look on his face. “You were looking pale, so I wanted to get a wet washcloth to rub your forehead with.”
She tried to stand but her legs wouldn’t hold her weight. She was still too surprised to think about something as mundane as standing.
In the end, she knew this wasn’t over yet. There was one last thing she had to test before she could truly say she was right.
Gathering her willpower she forced herself up. She shot another blast of magic at him. “Try casting a spell now.”
He nodded, and snapped again. This time it appeared, and as he said he wiped her forehead with a washcloth.
“I need to do one more test. Discord, I’m still counting on you here.”
He nodded.
“Give me some of your magic.”
He moved his claw to her and shot a stream of magic at her. When he was done he pointed back at Mayhem.
Her horn lit up, and another beam of light hit Mayhem.
Mayhem began to feel fatigued, and soon he fell to his knees, unable to remain standing.
He gently panted as the light faded.
Just like before Twilight asked, “Can you cast a spell?”
Mayhem had to struggle to lift his claw, but he managed a snap before letting his arm fall back to his side.
Nothing happened.
“Okay,” said Fluttershy. “What did that prove?”
“Nothing yet,” said Twilight. “The next few minutes will tell.
“Discord, unless Mayhem starts to vanish don’t give him any magic.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“Whether this next test pans out or not I’ll tell you everything when it’s over. I don’t want to give him, or you and Fluttershy, a false hope by explaining what may just be a flawed theory.”
Mayhem was too tired to care at the moment, so he crawled along the ground towards Fluttershy and forced his arms up at her.
She picked him up, sitting down in a chair and holding him to her. She did wonder what Twilight had in mind, but she trusted that her friend had his best interests at heart, so she didn’t push the issue.
Twilight began to pace around the room. This was going to be the deciding factor. She felt impatient beyond measure, but there was nothing to do but wait.
Discord watched her for a short time before directing his attention towards Mayhem. He didn’t want to miss it if Mayhem started to disappear.
After about ten minutes Twilight finally stopped her frantic pacing and returned to Mayhem.
Everyone turned to her, eager to have this mystery cleared up.
“Mayhem,” she said, “I want you to cast a spell for the exact same thing you were trying to use your magic for earlier.”
He didn’t feel quite so exhausted now, even though he was still drained. He lifted his claw and snapped. A flower appeared between them, going behind Twilight’s ear.
“Oh my gosh,” Twilight said slowly. She put her hooves to her face. “Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh!”
“What?” said Mayhem.
“Exactly!” Fluttershy said angrily. “We’re all tired of the vagueness and secrets.”
“Right!” said Discord, crossing his arms. “If you don’t start talking I’ll just go into your brain for the information, with or without your permission.”
Twilight was huffing as she put her hooves down. “I’m sorry. I’m just… in shock. I-I-I never thought this would happen. I didn’t even know it was a possibility… and yet it’s happened before my very eyes. I just need some time to process it before I make a scene. I feel like I’m about to freak out.”
Mayhem could see she really did look at her emotional limit. “Well,” he said quietly, “can you at least tell us if it’s good news or bad news?”
“Good. Very, very good.”
He let out a sigh of relief. “Okay. If that’s the case I can wait a little longer.”
Her horn lit up, and she gave him all the magic she had absorbed from him.
She put a hoof to her face again, trying to regain her composure. She forced herself to take slow breaths for a few minutes until her feelings stabilized.
When she felt she was under control she put her hoof down. “Okay, I’m ready to talk.”
Mayhem sat up straighter, eager to hear what she had figured out.
“Today… we have all bore witness to something that has never happened in all of recorded history.”
Discord’s eyebrow went up. “Is that a fact? And what would that be?”
“The true birth of a draconequus.”
“Come again?” said Fluttershy.
“Mayhem has evolved, truly becoming his own individual self.”
“Haven’t I been doing that for a long time?” asked Mayhem.
“I’m not talking about your personality here. I’m talking about you. What you are. Or, rather, were.”
She could see all of them giving her confused looks.
“Twilight,” Fluttershy said impatiently, “can you please stop beating around the bush and just be blunt?”
“The reason Mayhem’s consciousness is rejecting going back inside Discord really is because the two of them have separated completely. However, this is a cause for celebration, not concern. Mayhem has truly become real. In other words, Mayhem is no longer just magic taking Discords shape. He is a true-blue living creature, no different than Discord.”
All of them looked floored.
Discord’s crossed arms fell to his sides. “Are you serious?”
Fluttershy hopped out of her seat, so taken by this statement that she forgot Mayhem was on her lap.
Mayhem barely felt the impact, hopping off the floor. “T-T-T-Twilight,” he stuttered out, “w-why do you think that?”
Twilight looked down at him. “The first spell I cast on you was the exact same one I tried using on you back when you first talked to Cup. It was a spell to suppress your magic. However, since you were just living magic the spell immediately caused your mind to go blank and made you start to disappear.
“That didn’t happen this time.”
Mayhem was finding it hard to breathe. “A-a-and th-the second test?”
“Once that was done I used Discord’s magic to drain all of yours. Let me repeat that. I drained you of all your magic. And yet you didn’t disappear. You just grew tired and found it hard to move.”
“Oh my gosh!” Fluttershy called out, feeling her legs going weak just like Twilight’s had earlier.
“And then,” said Twilight, “was the biggest thing of all.”
“Wait!” said Discord. “You don’t mean-?”
She nodded. “He was too exhausted to cast any spells, and yet after ten minutes of rest he was able to cast one, even though neither Discord or I gave him more. This means Mayhem isn’t fully reliant on outside sources for more energy anymore. He’s generating his own.”
Mayhem stumbled over next to Fluttershy, needing to sit down.
“Even for someone whose special ability is doing the impossible he’s really topped himself here.”
Each of them was in their own world. Now they understood why Twilight was close to having a breakdown earlier. They each needed a little time to process it themselves.