Chapter Two: “The Power”
Everyone stared at Discord in anticipation. He merely floated there, seemingly unaware of the rising anticipation by everyone in the room, besides himself and Pinkie Pie. After what seemed like an entire minute, Celestia couldn't take it anymore. “Well? Are you going to giver her your powers or not, Discord?”
Discord blinked, then landed on the ground. “Oh right!” He laughed. “Would you believe I had completely forgot what I was doing here?”
Everyone sighed with relief, realizing that Discord wasn't up to no good. He slowly made his way over to Pinkie Pie. “Now my dear, are you sure you're ready for this.” Discord sounded almost as if he was concerned.
Pinkie Pie smiled broadly. “Ready for what?”
Everyone, Discord included, looked dumbfounded at this question. Discord asked, “you do remember why you just went through my contest, don't you?”
Pinkie Pie frowned a little, then cocked her head side ways. “I don't remember at all! I had a lot of fun though.”
Celestia looked as if she could faint. Everyone else just kept their mouths wide open. After a few seconds of staring at her Pinkie Pie got a defensive look on her face. “What? It was a lot of fun!”
Discord chuckled and leaned down to whisper in her ear. After a few seconds she laughed. “Oh yeah! I completely forgot.”
Discord straightened up, and loosing his normal tone of gloating and pride said, “are you ready?”
Pinkie Pie seemed to pick up his serious look. “I am.”
Discord slowly raised his right hand and looked around the room. After a moment he closed his eyes and snapped his fingers. For a few seconds everyone stood there in silence. Discord stood there with his hand raised, and Pinkie Pie seemed no different. Twilight was the first to speak. “Is that it? She has all your power now?”
Discord laughed extremely hard. After several moments of trying to catch his breath he looked at Twilight with a bemused expression. “Do you honestly think that I could give her ALL of my power at once? That was merely the connection, that was the beginning. I will now slowly lose my power, as she will slowly gain it.”
“Well how long will that take?” Twilight asked irritated.
Discord shrugged. “It took me four full months, but there's no way to tell how long she will take. But while I'm still me, I think I'll take a vacation. There's a nice universe not too far from here with more beach side than there is other land!”
Everyone looked at him confused. He starred back for a moment. “OK look, I have done my part, I reigned chaos for a few thousand years, then passed the torch, now I deserve some me time. I think I have earned the right to skip this universe for something a little better.”
Celestia looked at him coldly. “So that is it Discord? After terrorizing my world for longer than I can remember, you are just going to leave?”
Discord look was almost melancholy. “My dear Celly, I have known you since you were born. I have caused more chaos then even someone as old as you can possibly imagine. But yes, I'm afraid that I am calling it quits. This is the last you'll see of little old me.”
Celestia looked irritated. “That is not what I meant Discord! I could care less about never seeing you again, but,” she hesitated, “but could you stay and help her learn to control your power?”
Discord looked touched. “I didn't know you cared that much. Unfortunately even if I wanted to help her 'control' her power, it's beyond my reach. It's chaos power my dear, not magic. Not only is the word control not in its vocabulary, the power comes in different for everyone. I couldn't help her any more than any of you can.”
Celestia looked desperate. “Please Discord, there must be something you can do to help her on her way.”
“I'm sorry, the closest thing I can give to advice is try new things everyday, and eventually you'll figure it all out.” At that, Discord snapped his fingers and was gone.
Celestia stepped toward Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie Pie, please come with us, my sister and I need to speak with you in private.”
Pinkie Pie began following Princess Celestia and Luna, while her friends stared after them, curiosity burning. When they arrived at Celestia's throne, both Princesses looked at Pinkie Pie. Celestia was the first to speak. “Pinkie Pie, do you understand the power you now hold?”
Pinkie Pie shook her head. “I don't think anyone does. I don't understand how normal magic works.”
Celestia paused, unsure of what to make of that profound statement. Luna recovered more quickly. “What sister means is, do you understand the amount of power you will soon come to wield?”
Pinkie Pie nodded her head. “All of Discord's right?”
The longer this conversation went on, the more nervous Celestia got. She looked wearily at Pinkie Pie. “Yes, but do you understand the amount of harm that those powers may cause?”
“Harm?”
Princess Luna motioned for Celestia to come closer, and began whispering in her ear. “Sister, we think that the pink one may be too naive to understand the concepts that we are trying to address. Perhaps it would be better if we were to simply let her friends watch over her for any problems.”
Celestia looked livid. She couldn't possibly imagine letting anyone with Discord's power simply roam free. She looked down at the smiling Earth pony, and her heart sank a little. The smile on Pinkie Pie's face reminded her of how much the young pony had done to help all of Equestria. She couldn't bring herself to actually try to keep her bottled up. Celestia sighed. “Alright, Pinkie Pie, please be careful with your power. Please fetch Twilight, I wish to ask her a favor.”
“Oke doki!”
Pinkie Pie went and got Twilight. “Twilight, please from now on watch over Pinkie Pie, and ensure that her powers develop smoothly. Also, from now on, please begin sending me regular reports on her progress.”
“Yes princess,” Twilight said bowing her head.
Pinkie Pie and her friends began making their way back to the Ponyville train. On the way, her friends couldn't help but ask her questions.
“Do you feel any different,” Rainbow Dash asked, being forward as always.
“Nope,” Pinkie Pie replied.
“Have you tried doing anything with it yet,” Twilight asked.
“Yep.”
All five of her friends stared at her, waiting for more. After several seconds Apple Jack had grown impatient. “Well, what'd ya try to do?”
Pinkie Pie smiled. “Wellllll..... I tried to make a little chocolate rain.”
“Pinkie,” Twilight shouted, “you can't just mess around with that kind of power!”
“Not even a little,” Pinkie Pie asked innocently.
Twilight put her hoof to her forehead and sighed. “Pinkie you need to be careful. When you get all of Discord's power, you will be able to do anything.”
“I know.”
“That doesn't worry you?”
“Why should it?”
“Because you will have to be careful all the time. Because it's so easy to hurt someone when you can do so many things.”
“But won't I be able to also undo whatever I do?”
Twilight lowered her head. “You can't make them forget.”
Everyone stared at Twilight. Unsure of what she was referring to. Pinkie Pie walked over to her and gave her a hug. “I promise I'll be careful.”
Twilight smiled a little. “I'll be there to help if things go bad.”
After a few moments of silence Rarity couldn't help but speak her mind. Something had been bothering her since Pinkie Pie had told them that she had tried to make chocolate rain. “I'm sorry, but am I the only one who found it odd that Pinkie Pie couldn't make her chocolate rain?”
“What do you mean Rarity,” Fluttershy asked.
“Well, it's just that how do we know that Discord actually gave away his powers?”
Everyone stopped and pondered on this for a moment. After a few seconds of thought, Twilight decided to apply the scientific method to the question at hand. “Perhaps a test is in order. Pinkie try to make something else, like a cake, appear here.”
Pinkie Pie focused for a few seconds. Nothing seemed to happen. “Pinkie, are you trying to make cake appear?”
“Uh huh.”
“Let me try,” Rainbow Dash said, as she pushed past Twilight and began whispering in Pinkie Pie's ear.
After a moment Pinkie Pie began laughing hysterically, while everyone else stared. After a few seconds of laughter she slowly regained some measure of calm. Still fighting giggles she said “OK, OK, that sounds good.” She then looked straight at Twilight and began focusing hard.
Twilight looked got very nervous. “Pinkie, what are you doing?” Pinkie Pie didn't answer, she just kept focusing on Twilight. “Rainbow Dash, what did you tell her to do?” Rainbow Dash snickered a little as Pinkie Pie continued to focus.
After a few more tense seconds Pinkie Pie finally stopped staring intently at Twilight and merrily announced. “Done!”
Twilight was near a nervous breakdown. “What, what did you do,” she yelled as she looked at herself to the best of her ability.
Rainbow Dash looked Twilight up and down. “I don't see it Pinkie, are you sure you did it?”
“Well, if I did it right, then it should happen in three, two, one.”
Twilight braced herself to be turned into something, or be teleported away to somewhere. After a few seconds of her eyes being clenched shut, she slowly opened them. Everyone was staring at her. Actually, it seemed as if Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash was staring at her feet. She slowly looked down to see a snake at her feet. “AH,” she yelled and jumped back.
Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash began laughing hysterically as Twilight stood on top of the nearest train seat staring down at the snake. After a few more moments she realized it was rubber. “DASH,” Twilight yelled angrily at Rainbow Dash.
“What,” Rainbow said between laughs, “I didn't do it.”
Still looking angry she regained some of her calm. “How did you even know I was afraid of snakes?”
Rainbow Dash looked over at Fluttershy. Twilight gave her a glare, and Fluttershy sank behind Rarity.
Twilight looked back at Pinkie Pie. “Well that at least confirms it, you have some power.”
Rainbow Dash looked over at Pinkie Pie. “Oh this is going to be fun.”
“Dash,” Twilight said as she shot a waring look to Rainbow Dash.
“What, I just meant the parties she will throw,” Rainbow Dash said with as much innocence as the plans running through her mind would allow.
Pinkie Pie got a broad smile. “OOOOO I SHOULD throw a party!!!!!”
Everyone shot Rainbow Dash a look, and Rainbow Dash sheepishly smiled back.
“I'll call it the 'I'm the new lord of chaos' party!”
Twilight interjected. “Pinkie, maybe you should take it slow, you don't know how hard it will be to control your power. You might want to get used to it before you go try and throw a party.”
“But...” Pinkie Pie began but trailed off.
Rarity quickly stepped in. “What Twilight here means is, wouldn't you rather know more about your new powers so you can entertain your guests with it?”
Pinkie Pie perked back up. “Ya! They'll love so see some neat tricks!”
Twilight let out a small sigh. Keeping Pinkie Pie from going crazy with power was going to be more difficult than she realized.