//------------------------------// // Rehabilitation, Part 5: Harmony // Story: Harry Potter and the Prancing of Ponies // by The Guy Who Writes //------------------------------// September 11th, 94th Year of the Tenth Celestial Century. Riddle had even gone so far as to plan the lies he would tell to fool Mr. Potter until just the right moment for him to suffer the proper consequences of his betrayal... ...but the voice of the phoenix would not stop screaming at him long enough to comply with a desire to teleport. It seemed as if it would only answer a request to teleport back into the Discord debacle. He couldn't concentrate with that inner-conflict, and he could only access phoenix travel as a pony, so becoming a human wouldn't work as a fix. He also didn't want to see what would happen if he became a human while standing inside a place meant for alicorns. He might have to find the right argument that the phoenix would accept... "Riddle?" yawned a voice that, while not quite welcome, was at least not Discord's. "So this plane is yours after all." There came a noise of discomfort. "Why does your mane hurt to look upon?" Riddle glanced at his 'memories', confirming that they were neatly organized on an inscrutably empty bookshelf, then glanced back at his now-ethereal mane that looked to him like the traceries of anti-light that he would draw through the air before making a Horcrux. "No idea," he answered honestly. The patterns shouldn't hurt to see. Was she seeing something else? "This is the first it's ever been like this." "It was not like that when you came here the first time?" "It might have been," he answered, also honestly, "but I did not stay long enough to notice." When he'd cheated his way to alicorn status over half a year ago, it had been with a firm plan in mind. He fused himself with earth and horn by sacrificing a troll and a unicorn. He arrived in the Astral Plane as expected. He willed his memories to outwardly show blankness. Then he left before another alicorn could see his identity. His guess that Luna would be his welcoming pony, not Celestia, was finally being confirmed. "Why have you come here now?" she asked. "Do you seek full ascension?" He shook his head. "Refuge." "From what?" "From whom," he corrected. "You've been asleep for the past few hours, I take it?" She nodded, her drowsiness starting to leave her. "Ever since the Changelings were expelled. Did something go wrong? Was Chrysalis too powerful to... defeat?" He snorted. "No. That matter is settled. But Discord escaped in the chaos of the raid." His employer's eyes widened. She now seemed fully awake and alert. "We must go back at once! Meet me in my chambers." She disappeared from his astral plane without giving him time to respond. "No," he said to the empty air. Ignoring the screaming of the phoenix, he browsed the shelf of memories. This seemed like a good time to make progress on the problem of Obliviation. And he might as well do it with memories relevant to the current situation, in case Discord somehow found him again. It took around a minute of Luna anxiously watching the suffering city from the window of her chaos-proof bedroom to realize that Riddle wasn't coming. When she went and found him right where she left him, examining a scroll that was likely one of his memories, she felt a wave of anger. Riddle's head snapped up to meet her furious gaze, even before she could reprimand him, and annoyance crossed his features. "You demanded that I risk my life, and now you are angry that I choose not to," he said in reproach of his own. "I think I've met my quota of saving Equestria for the day." He went back. To examining. His scroll. "There is no such thing," she seethed, "as a quota," to the infuriating pony, "for saving Equestria. You just do it!" The last part had come out in the Royal Canterlot voice, but she didn't care. "You do it," he replied insolently. "I decline." "You may not decline," she declared. "As an alicorn, it is your responsibility." "Your responsibility," he replied with even more insolence. "Our responsibility," she revised. "You have shared it ever since accepting your nobility." "Then revoke it. I never truly cared." "Oh, I shall do more than that, Mystery Book. If you refuse to help this military affair, I shall fire you, and ban you from Canterlot." That actually caused him to look up from his scroll. His eyes narrowed. "I would say to go ahead and do it, for I do not care about either threat. And I will. After I provide my military advice, as I promised I would. "Discord can alter the weather at will. He can make anything happen just by snapping his fingers. He and his magic can follow me wherever I go, except here. I may not kill him unless he is malicious in his actions, and even if he is spiteful, I'm not confident I could kill a god. As a strictly unharmonious pony, I suspect I am especially vulnerable to chaos magic. Even if I weren't, the only thing I think I can do to Discord is talk to him, and I refuse to be a simple distraction like that. From a tactical standpoint, there is far too much risk for far too little reward. From a personal standpoint, my answer is simply 'no'. I care for my life, thank you very much. If you cannot come up with a better and safer alternative to that, do not ask me to intervene. In short, Ms. Lullay, I offer no practical assistance. I advise you get the Elements of Harmony to solve this problem. Now fire me and leave, if you would be so kind." Luna listened to this analysis at first with more anger, then with a slowly building sense of despair. And that last part, being called by her old, ordinary pony name, hurt more than she would have expected. As far as she could tell, he wasn't wrong. Worse, he honestly did not care if he was fired, or demoted, or banned from Canterlot. He might not even care if he was banned from Equestria entirely, though she could not legally or morally do that. "Although before you leave, I am curious," he said at the end. "You believe banning me from Canterlot would help me find happiness? Shouldn't your Vow prevent you from making such threats?" Luna took many deep breaths to calm herself. Her emotions were not helping the situation. Riddle is the type of pony who is only ever convinced by reasoning, facts, and logic. If those facts can overcome his strongly-established cynical beliefs – an almost impossibly high standard to meet, most of the time. She would need to actually think to acquire his help. "In a world ruled by Discord," she finally managed to answer his question, "your chances for finding happiness would be equally bad, no matter where you went. Failing to stop him would be far worse for the potential of your future happiness than losing access to Canterlot." "Interesting," he said, as if they were discussing the weather, with nothing urgent or important going on. "I am glad it was not 'you are threatening innocent ponies with your decision to not intervene, so the exception applies', or something equally stupid." Luna, with an extreme will of effort, sighed away her annoyances with the pony in front of her. "I am not going to fire you," she said. "You are right, there is little we can do. I just... I was angry when you refused me. I thought it was a matter of choice, not ability. And although it still is, to some extent... well, I suppose I was expecting more from you." "If you are attempting to manipulate me into helping," he said flatly, "you will leave." What? Oh. Well, that is the cynical interpretation of her words, isn't it? "I was not attempting manipulation," she said. "Honesty would never let me attempt non-consensual manipulation like that." "Then what was it?" he asked skeptically. "Statement of fact." She walked a bit closer to him, then sat down. "After so many matters that you helped almost instantly, and without any apparent hesitation, I simply assumed that you could help all matters. And that you would. At least when it came to anything truly important. I came to expect it of you. I never thought you would balk at the first sign of true difficulty. I thought you would try regardless." He looked at her for a time. "There is a common saying that extreme incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. Though it's not commonly understood, the opposite is also true. Extreme competence can be indistinguishable from virtue. I have warned you many times not to think of me as a good pony. I am being exactly as self-interested as I have always been. The only difference between then and now is Discord." "That is what I don't understand," she sighed. "You have risked your life before. With Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis. You confronted my sister, and the university, and the nobility of this nation with an utter lack of fear. What makes Discord so different?" Riddle shrugged. "His ability to bypass my defenses. I was never in much real danger in the other matters, except maybe Nightmare Moon. Even then I had escape plans. Discord can ignore my defenses, follow my escapes, and do things to me that I can't prevent or dispel." "This is the first time you have been in true danger?" Luna realized. "Since arriving in Equestria." "And your response to that is to run away?" "Of course," he answered. "The sensible tactic when facing an intelligent enemy you cannot defeat or survive is to teleport away. Living to fight another day is a severely undervalued war strategy by those who are inexperienced in war. A dead pony is a useless pony." She tried not to let her anger rise up again, but it was difficult. "Many ponies have died in fights for better futures," she said, remembering a few battles of a millennium past. "If they had not fought, more lives would have been lost, including their own. Their deaths were not useless." "True enough, on occasion," Riddle agreed. "But not this occasion. I do not see how my interference will make my own survival more likely. Not when I can stay here as long as I need to." "You will get hungry." "I have food stores." "Discord can rot them if they exist in Equestria." He rolled his eyes. "I have other means of survival. Take it as a given that I can survive, even if all of Equestria falls. In that light, ask yourself, as I asked myself, what I truly stand to gain from intervening." Luna stared at him, truly seeing him for the first time. Her sister was right. Her fool isn't a good pony. Not in the slightest. But that wouldn't stop her from trying. Even if she hadn't taken the Vow. "You stand to gain the feeling of accomplishment at doing something difficult," she said in refutation. "You stand to gain happiness in a world without Discord's influence. And you stand to earn the love and respect that you lost from me, if you pull it off." "Not that it's working in the slightest," said Riddle, "but do you truly believe you are not trying to manipulate me?" "Honesty is not manipulation," she replied. "I have said exactly what you stand to gain. Now that I know who you truly are inside, now that I know you never truly risked your life for anypony else's sake in the past, maybe not even your own, I honestly have lost respect for you. You honestly can get it back by helping." "You don't think I've helped enough today?" She shook her head. "There is no such thing as helping enough. There is such a thing as helping so much that you do more bad than good, and there is such a thing as not helping despite your best efforts, but that's neither here nor there, since you know how to truly help when you set your mind to it." "You say that and claim you do not respect me?" "It is possible to respect a pony's expertise without respecting them. What you have been doing is offering aid at your convenience, or at your calculated inconvenience. That will never be enough for my respect." Despite all the blatant evidence in front of her, she had allowed her emotions to cloud her vision, as her sister had pointed out. "In that case I doubt I can ever earn your respect." "You still can. I do not expect you to feel true courage in your actions. You do not have the mentality for that, I think. But a schemer like you risking himself in the face of factors he is firmly aware of and dreadfully fears is, in my opinion, far more admirable than emotional courage." "I agree," said Riddle. There was a pause. A pause in which Riddle did not add to that. "So you'll help?" "No." Luna let out an exasperated sigh. It really is like talking to a brick wall. "Why not?" "You offer nothing tangible," he answered. "Happiness? That is not certain. A feeling of accomplishment? I accomplish tasks I actually care about all the time. And I'm not sure how much I value your respect, but I know that I do not value it nearly enough to risk my life." "What about the respect of the nation, if that could be arranged?" Luna offered. "You are a prince, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, and if you defeat Discord, everypony will be grateful. And impressed." His hesitation was so short that she wondered if it was real, or if she'd just imagined it. "I'm not sure I care in the slightest. The last time I earned the 'love' of a nation, I did not feel anything in particular." Her first instinct was to doubt that absurd claim, despite the honesty with which he conveyed it, but the important thing was that he believed it, regardless of how true it really was. From his perspective, her offers really aren't tempting, or even all that desirable in the first place. What could she offer? What did he even want? As always, his lack of clear motivations was bordering on frustrating. Maybe it was because she was still subconsciously seeing him as a good pony. Alright, different approach. If he was a supervillain in a story, what might he want? She had been expecting that question to help. She was surprised when it didn't. He already has money, and even if he didn't, she wasn't sure he cared for it. The same with status. If she didn't know better, if she simply met him on the street, she wouldn't suspect for a second that he's wealthy and high-status. He almost never flaunted either, and he probably only wanted them in the first place because he thought they were useful, and because she'd essentially given them to him, not because he desperately sought them out. Money and status were means to an end for him, not ends in and of themselves. That's good as far as his redeemability goes, but left her stumped about his goals. What do villains want other than money and power? Sex? He didn't want that either, not that she would ever offer that as a bargaining chip for anything. What else? Well... villains often want to prove that they're the best, don't they? "What about the chance to outwit the most cunning enemy Equestria has ever seen?" she offered. "For that describes Discord to a tee. He has never been our most evil foe, only the most conniving. And the most powerful." The consequences of his rule had been terrible and all-encompassing, but he wasn't exactly 'evil'. Discord enjoys approval and laughter and company. He just isn't all that caring about the ponies he hurts, unless it's an egregious, undeniable, and unintended result of his chaos. Like that time one of his 'jokes', a falling anvil, left a bloody mess of pulp and gore and skull fragments, not the lump-on-the-head that he said he had been expecting. He had literally turned green, thrown up, then stopped tormenting Equestria for a full week. His return was a different story altogether, but he never used anvils afterwards, or blunt impacts in general, unless at safe levels. Ever since that day, Discord's 'slapstick comedy' toned down to the level of actual slaps, unless he was doing it to himself, which led Luna to believe the Draconequus has some amount of goodness in him, despite his claims to the contrary. As far as she and her other former Element could tell, he really does crave the Laughter of others. Even when he torments a pony, comedy is often his true goal, he just can't see why only he finds the torment funny. "You would be proving yourself as the most cunning being on Equus if you outmaneuvered him," Luna said, finishing her hopefully good offer. "A single victory does not prove general dominance," said Riddle. "The challenge is tempting, but not nearly tempting enough." That's the point, Luna thought. He couldn't earn back her respect if he did this out of weighing and calculating expected outcomes. But maybe that was too much to expect of him, so early into his redemption. "What about an exclusive training program for the guard?" Luna offered. "You said you were dissatisfied with their current state. I can allow you to train... fifty guards, as you see fit. If, afterwards, they are more capable than guards who go through standard training, we can expand the program." "Better," said Riddle. "That's even more tempting. But still no." A thousand years ago, she would have thrown up her hooves at this point- no. She would have thrown them up long before this point. In the present day, she only sighed. "Fine. I give up. Unless you think I can guess it on my own, please tell me what you want this time." The corners of his lips twitched upward. "There is only one thing worth the risk, and neither you nor any other can offer it. I am enjoying your ideas though." "You cannot see yourself helping for any reason?" He shook his head. "I don't see why you're so set on my help when I'm not the best pony for the job. Didn't you say there was a prophecy foretelling Harmony's victory?" "No," said Luna. "I said the prophecy foretold that good would prevail upon Discord's return. It did not say who would prevail, or how, or when. When Discord is involved, we've always needed all the help we can get." "And you truly think my presence would provide an advantage?" "Yes." "How?" She paused. "You think of things that nopony else would." "Hm," he huffed, a sound that somehow combined agreement and dismissal. They sat in silence for a while. Eventually, deciding he was right about one thing, she left his plane and used a scrying spell to check up on the Elements, who were... trapped in some kind of maze. A game of Discord's, no doubt. A long game, by the looks of it, which meant Discord would be occupied for a while. She sighed and returned to Riddle's realm, which she could visit with impunity so long as he was not fully ascended. Given his seemingly-empty shelf of memory storage, she doubted she could rummage through his memories even if she wanted to, not that she ever would without his permission. Seeing nothing better to do, she observed her fool. Maybe she could use this time to help him find happiness. Dwelling on the past without professional guidance can lead to depression… although he didn't look like he was brooding. He looked like he was working, slowly and steadily, with some purpose in mind. Riddle held a hoof to his temple even as he watched an open memory scroll. He slowly extracted a stream of white-silver light, then returned it to his forehead, closed the scroll (which caused it to vanish), retrieved a new scroll from the empty shelf, and repeated the process. "May I ask what you are doing?" she asked. "You may ask." His emphasis on the last word conveyed no commitment to answer. ... "What are you doing?" "Reviewing a few memories involving chaos." She felt like screaming. Why, why, why did Riddle Tome work her up like this. "So you do intend to help?" He looked up at her, frowning. "No, but it never hurts to prepare." "For what?" "The worst." He went back to watching a scroll. While he watched, an idea occurred to her. She waited for him to extract and return the memory in his own way, so as not to interrupt, then asked, "Would you like to see if you can learn the anti-chaos ward?" He looked up and stared at her, multiple emotions flashing across his face too quickly to read, then falling into blankness after a visible and audible breath that was not quite a sigh. "Yes, I would." The scroll closed itself and vanished. "Did you only think of that spell now, or is there some other reason you did not immediately mention it before encouraging me to embark on a suicide mission?" She felt her cheeks grow warm in embarrassment. "It would not have been a suicide mission! Discord does not intentionally kill ponies. Not even his enemies..." She trailed off at his harsh stare. "But you are right. I apologize. I did not think of it." "One would think it's be the first spell to consider in the face of Discord. Is it meant to be kept secret, and you did not think of it from habit?" She shook her head. "It is not dangerous. If you are asking after my subconscious influences, it might be the requirements of the spell. It is harmony magic, and I am not sure you of all ponies could learn to wield it. Only my sister and my self can do so by ourselves. In all other cases, it requires a full team of unicorns working together." "Has it fallen out of practice?" he asked. "I suspect I would have encountered it otherwise." Luna nodded, actually sharing some of her fool's frustration this time. "My sister has let her guards grow lax. My sister has let herself grow lax. I suspect she has not practiced in a long time, nor required our soldiers to learn it for equally long. I was always the one to insist they maintain the skill, despite Discord's petrification being foretold to last for centuries." "Typical of her softness," Riddle ridiculed. "Canterlot really did deserve invasion and chaos, didn't it?" "No. Canterlot deserved nothing of the sort. But on the off-chance Tia does not experience immense guilt over her negligence, she shall deserve every ounce of shame we can convince her to feel. Now are you ready to learn, or do you prefer to keep stalling?" That was enough to stop his questioning and begin his lesson. The spell structure is simple enough, but the conditions for casting are far more difficult to achieve. You must have the will and unity of many ponies working seamlessly together – working harmoniously together – to perform Harmony magic. In the group version of the spell, unicorns must be coordinated, united, and of one will. As the ruler of a nation, Princess Luna embodied a united will on her own. She watched her subjects' dreams, knew their desires, and could act with certainty that she was making the ward using more than her own power. The chaos ward draws on the inner strength of others, and requires a large amount of magic, which is why it requires groups in most settings. In her and her sister's case, when they share their gifts of Night and Day with the world, the world shares its appreciation in return, and that is often enough to cast the anti-chaos ward, though Celestia struggles to do so at night, and Luna struggles during the day. That is why they had so much difficulty during Discord's rule, since he could alter the day-night cycle at will, and often did, which disrupted their anti-chaos crusades and forced them to rely on the ponies they had trained. Today, nopony has been so trained, thanks to her sister's negligence. "If you share the magic you have discovered for yourself with the world," Luna said at the end of her lecture, "then you might be able to use harmony magic on your own. What is it, by the way?" She glanced at his Cutie-Mark and noticed that it had acquired a new addition. "Does the magic involve a green flash of some kind?" Riddle frowned, followed her gaze, huffed out a single chuckle, then said, "I don't think that will work. I shall try something else. Give me one minute." He closed his eyes, held a hoof to his head, then stood perfectly still. After a time, he said the 'word' "Confundus". His expression changed to be less severe, more... charismatic? His horn immediately began to glow, but nothing happened. Around five seconds later, his expression changed back to his normal one, and his horn stopped glowing. "What was that?" asked Luna. "That was a failure," he said, truthfully and deceptively. He sighed in frustration. "I suppose I shall have to resort to that then. Give me one more minute... or maybe two." He closed his eyes again but didn't raise his hoof this time. Luna didn't know what she was waiting for, and by the time she was ready to interrupt whatever he was doing and ask, his horn finally began to glow in the rainbow colour of the chaos ward. A surprisingly strong manifestation of Harmony magic emanated from him in all directions – strong enough to be felt even over the astral plane's high base levels, and stronger than Luna had ever cast on her own. Well, excluding when she wielded half of the Elements of Harmony, but that didn't count. The anti-chaos ward he just cast was more powerful than anything she could currently manifest on her own, and as powerful as the strongest she'd ever seen it cast without the Elements – once, a full army of unicorns had managed to reach that level. Luna stared at Riddle in shock. At the very least, his personal magic shouldn't have been enough for that, to say nothing about the spell's main requirement. "How did you do that?" she asked her unharmonious fool. "Cleverness," he replied. "On an unrelated note-" lie "-did you ever ask the Changelings for help against Discord?" "No..." said Luna. "But I did not discover them until after we defeated him. Why..." and then her eyes widened as she got it. "Their hivemind!" she said excitedly. "Of course. You still have access to it?" He shrugged in confirmation. Her mind immediately went to how this might help her subjects. "Could you teach the ward to them that way? Could you ask the Changelings to dispel the chaos around the nation?" His eyebrows furrowed. "I could ask, but I doubt Thorax would agree to send the order. It takes energy for their species to cast magic, and right now they are all very low." "And yet they were willing to spare some for you just now?" He shook his head. "That took none, strangely enough." His gaze went distant, and his tone switched to that of speculative curiosity. "Since I am not a Changeling, I can provide my own magic; I only needed the strength of their collective will, and that took none of their energy at all." His eyes focused on her again, and he said in his normal severity, "If you want them to cast the chaos ward, that will drain their reserves, and I doubt they can spare anything at the moment. Many Changelings are wounded after impacting the ground, or a tree, or a rock. The love in the expulsion spell allowed them all to survive the initial impact, but only survive it. Some are critically wounded, and the efforts to save everyling are looking bleak." If she were not a princess, Luna might have cursed at that. Having Changelings – who are apparently natural harmony-wielders – put out the chaos of Equestria had been such a tantalizing solution, especially since the Changelings were scattered all across Equestria at the moment. But it was just out of reach. In order to convince Changelings to help, they would need love, but she couldn't possibly do that when they were suffering their own dire straits... straits which her fool had completely failed to mention until now... but there might not be much she could have done to help them, even if she knew they were suffering. Most ponies are probably not in loving moods, and the chaos would only make everything worse... Wait. "Tell Thorax," she said, a plan taking shape in her mind, "that perhaps there is a solution to both our problems..." Silk is not a brave Changeling. She prefers back-line work. Like medical treatment, or logistics. As an officer, she occasionally had to do field work under Chrysalis's rule, but she was always nervous that some pony would know the un-disguise spell. Her greatest fear – a fear shared by many Changelings – was that a pony would discover her nature, torture her, and kill her. Ponies discovering the hive had always been tied to that nightmare, but now that Chrysalis had revealed them all, that part of the nightmare has morphed into something else. Now she fears that ponies will dissect her and use her brain to somehow infiltrate the hivemind and track down her kin. She had their new king (her old commanding officer) to thank for that fear. She would have preferred to not know what happened to him in the crystal caves beneath Canterlot. She would have preferred to not know that the ling who recently asked for the strength of the hive was not a ling at all, but a pony. And most of all, if there was any other way, she would have preferred to not be one of the lings to carry out her current, king-enforced orders. Find ponies suffering from Chaos. Cast the spell I just taught you. Pray that you are rewarded with gratefulness and love. It was a gambit. The entire hive is low on love, and getting lower thanks to all the blunt force bruises that need healing. Love could be transferred through the hivemind to a ling in need, but you had to burn a lot of love when you did it that way, and they were really, really empty right now. If they wanted to heal the lings who were close to death thanks to the explosion that expelled them from Canterlot, they would need ten times the normal amount, and stat. As a medic, she knew that better than anyling else. Making matters worse, the chaos of Discord reached every corner of the pony nation. That meant standard infiltration-and-collection tactics wouldn't work. There were groups of ponies huddled in fear, groups of ponies laughing at some of the effects, groups of ponies just watching curiously, depending on what was happening in the area. Even the most experienced infiltration officers would have trouble improvising well enough to get love at a time like this. Throw in the fact that their whole species had been revealed, even if the news hadn't spread very far yet, and it was one, massive disaster. It was so bad that King Thorax had been the first to try this plan, even though the King/Queen usually doesn't do anything him/herself. But he was the only ling with enough love to cast the 'anti-chaos' spell in the first place. In his words, he had the 'good luck' to land close to a location that was raining cats and dogs (literally) on one side of town and suffering a cow-and-barn-lifting tornado problem on the other side of town. The cows were really scared, with many screaming for help, but even the unicorns couldn't levitate them down with how fast they were moving, and how high up they were. Thorax said that when he saved them by de-chaosing the place, the whole town dogpiled him (in thanks, not hatred) even though he wasn't disguised, which gave him enough love to save all the dying Changelings. But now he was sending love to the scattered officers and telling them to do what he just did, since the hive still needed to heal the wounded, not just save them from death. So now it's Silk's turn. Thorax had said that most ponies wouldn't consider a 'bug pony' out of place with all the chaos going on. They'd just assume somepony got hit by a nasty effect. Thorax had said that, in this one particular instance, they didn't have to worry about disguising. Thorax had said that they shouldn't disguise, since pony love directed at a 'naked' changeling is extremely nourishing and powerful, way more than normal, as he had just discovered. But even if it had worked for him, that wasn't enough to overcome a lifetime of fears, some of it deeply rooted in Changeling biology, not to mention her own personality of shyness and self-preservation. She hates to admit it, but she really is a worthless craven. The hive really does need the love, though. Silk can hear Gossamer moaning in pain over the hivemind. She wants to help, she really does, but she's just so scared. That's when Thorax asked, he asked, if she would prefer to be given a 'kingly order' so she could help despite her fear, or if she'd just like to sit this one out. She knew then and there that Thorax would be a billion times better than Chrysalis had ever been. So she'd told him that she would take the kingly order. She did want to help, and this way she would help. Even as her instincts screamed at her to run away, the order would cause her to stay. She'd still rather it be anyling else, but there were only three officer-level Changelings near 'bad' chaos, and she was one of them, so she would suck it up and do her best. The 'bad' chaos in question was a never-ending earthquake. A few young ponies were having fun with what the vibrations were doing to their voices, and one older pony was treating the ground like a masseuse, but for the most part ponies were panicking, or crying about their ruined house, or huddled as far away from pony-made structures as possible. She didn't have that much love, so she couldn't use her love to cast the spell on the whole town. She would have to fix pockets of chaos at a time. She started with the crumbled house. The mare crying into her husband's chest didn't notice as Silk walked up to them, and the stallion comforting his wife didn't notice either. "S-s-sta-a-and ba-a-ack," she said in a stuttering voice that wasn't only a result of the earth's vibration. She called on the strength of the hive, which Thorax said was needed, then cast the anti-chaos spell. The two ponies barely had time to react to her words, though the flying wooden beams encouraged them to get out of the way pretty quickly as the rumbling stopped and the house began to repair itself. They spent less time gaping at her than she thought they would because as soon as the house was whole again, the stallion ran inside, and the mare began pacing nervously. When the stallion returned with a young, crying foal in his arm, she suddenly realized why they were crying in the first place. It had never been about the house. "My foal!" the mare dashed over. "Shh, shh, you're safe now." She sat down, put her foal in her lap, then began cradling it until it calmed down. "Oh, my sweet little Sundew. Thank Celestia you're safe." "I don't think we should be thanking Celestia," said the husband, looking up from his offspring and straight at Silk. If not for Thorax's orders, she would have bolted at the direct attention that a pony was giving to her undisguised self. She really would have bolted as the stallion walked up to her. He wrapped his neck around her, and said, "Whoever you are, thank you very much." Thorax had said to be ready to send the love across the hivemind at a moment's notice. He had said that if she succeeded, she would experience a love overload if she didn't. He even ordered her to be ready, after she asked for orders in the first place. Even still, she hadn't been ready for just how fast her stores would fill up, or just how fast she reached the tipping point. Even after sending a direct line of love to Gossamer and Cavemoss and Softspit and a dozen other Changelings who needed healing, she still had to double over and throw up raw love. Thankfully not on the stallion hugging her, just on the ground. "Are you alright?" the stallion asked, unwrapping his neck and kneeling down to her new eye level. The concern and care in his voice was almost as nourishing as love, and she threw up a bit more before directing love to all the nearby Changelings, even if they weren't hurting all that bad, and that was finally enough that she evened out, losing exactly as much as she was gaining. "I'm alright," she said to the stallion. "Don't worry about it." "It doesn't look okay," he said, giving the pink goop a very hesitant sniff. "It's fine. Really. It's just energy." Then she thought of an idea. "I can clean it up. Watch." She put a hoof on the love, letting her access its power, then cast another anti-chaos spell, this one much larger than the last one. The love on the ground was lost, but the whole town stopped shaking and the broken buildings fixed themselves. "See?" The stallion had been surprised at his own home being fixed before, but now he, and many other ponies, were staring at her in shock. She felt that need to run away again, but her orders kept her in place. "What are you?" asked the stallion. "Don't be rude," said his wife, who had successfully lulled her foal into slumber, and was now close enough to flick her husband's ear. "He meant to ask who you are, dear." "I'm... um... n-noling special." Unfortunately, her orders didn't help with her shyness. She had to overcome that herself. "I'm Silk." "How ever can we thank you?" asked the mare. "Um... the hug was n-nice." "Well, Silk, I think we all owe you the biggest hug we've ever given anypony. My little Sundew most of all." The rest of the town, fortunately for her hive and unfortunately for her instincts, agreed. Not in words, but in actions. "It's going surprisingly well," Riddle reported in response to Luna's question. "Better than I thought it would. I'm surprised noling has been lynched... no. Wait. One of them was just run out of town... a town suffering from monster problems." He sighed. "Well, nine out of ten is still a good success rate. Thorax, order him to try again while disguised. Maybe we can get to ten out of ten." "Is 'lynch' a modern term for running somepony out of town?" Luna asked. "Something like that," Riddle lied. Luna sighed. She would let it slide, since it wasn't important, and there were more pressing matters. "Now will you help with Discord?" His facial expression conveyed 'no', but he didn't say it outright, so maybe he was considering it? "Orchestrating a nationwide containment to all the chaos wasn't enough?" "No." "Will anything ever be enough?" "Yes. Like you pointed out with Chrysalis, the problem will be solved once we deal with the source. Nothing short of stopping Discord will stop the chaos forever." "The wards seem to be doing nicely." Luna shook her head. "He can overcome those if he visits them personally, and there are still many unprotected settlements. And that is just within Equestria's borders. Their distance from Discord should keep them relatively safe, but other countries will begin suffering the long-term effects of chaos soon enough." Her fool seemed to twitch, then held up a hoof. "Hold on... yes... okay." That would take some getting used to, Luna thought, though that was probably more true for him than her. "It seems the chaos has spontaneously stopped," he reported. "A Changeling near Ponyville saw a massive explosion of rainbows. I think the Elements of Harmony have done their jobs." Luna didn't allow herself to fully relax. She would have to confirm it for herself. Still, she breathed a sigh of relief, took a step forward, then hesitated. Her initial instinct was to hug him to show her appreciation, but that instinct was marred by two things – his discomfort for hugs, and her recent understanding of his character. Everything he did today – and it was not trivial by any stretch of the imagination; when it came to the realm of magical innovation, whole generations of ponies did not get half as much done in a century as he could do in an afternoon... In any case, everything he did had been done for his secret motives, or because he wanted to preserve himself, not because he was a good pony. The moment she'd presented a means to combat the chaos, he'd exploited it for all it was worth and magnified it to a degree that Equestria had never seen before, but he only did that because he personally feared what chaos could do to him. As he poignantly pointed out, most of what she felt for him stemmed from his competence, not from his virtue. She needs to keep that in mind going forward. "Thank you for helping," she said. He deserved at least that much. He shrugged, then returned to examining his memories. "And I... I apologize," she said honestly. "For earlier." He looked up at her, raising an eyebrow. He did not ask her to be more specific, but she felt that was what his expression was conveying. Luna chose her words carefully. She wanted this to be honest and meaningful, and that meant avoiding certain things and focusing on others. "I... do not wish to imagine what might have happened if you had gone to confront Discord at my first insistence," she explained. "It probably would not have resulted in the good that happened, for ponies and Changelings." "Acting without a plan or a goal in mind has a tendency to do that," he said dryly. "It is precisely why I dislike stupid bravery." She frowned at the roundabout insult. It wasn't incorrect, but... "It is a shame you did not manage to retain the Changeling empathy sense along with access to their hive mind," she sighed. "Perhaps you would at least hesitate to inflict unhappiness upon others if you had to share their stress." She felt a wave of deception as he went back to examining a memory. Her eyes widened as she realized. "Do you still have Changeling empathy?" He rolled up the memory scroll and sighed. "Yes." "Yes, yes, yes!" she cheered. She instantly dashed forward and hugged him, knowing he would demand something for it, but not caring at all. She couldn't have asked for a better outcome of the Changeling business. Now her fool would feel what others felt. He would hesitate to hurt the feelings of others, if she advised him, and he heeded her advice. "Good," she said, her neck still wrapped around his. "That will make your improvement go much more quickly." "I suspected as much," he sighed again, not sounding happy. "You do realize-" "Yes," she said, hugging him even tighter. "I owe you a favour. Now please, open your senses and try to enjoy it." The untensing of his muscles, for the second time in two days, was a joy to feel again.