A Discordant Romance
Ch 3: Flowers and Dreams
Stalking the Prey
Discord sat in silence as the yellow one passed him. He was hiding in the brush of the tree-library, and was waiting to see where she was going.
While hiding, he had heard Twilight talking to her, and he learned a couple important things:
First: The pony he had tucked into bed was named Apple Bloom
Second: They were working on a device called a “Chaos Inhibitor”
But most importantly: They still hadn’t discovered him.
Undoubtedly, Celestia would soon be alerted that her centerpiece statue had once again disappeared and would have begun to take action.
However, this time things would end differently.
Last time, he was sure that with the Elements of Harmony spread across six ponies he could make them hate each other enough to break the bond with their own Element.
Last time he was a fool.
Carefully moving through the back alleys of Ponyville, Discord tried to keep up with his quarry.
Sliding through the streets like a dark shadow, he followed Applebloom through Ponyville until she stopped at an unassuming looking cottage on the edge of town. Unlocking the door she stepped inside.
From his vantage point, Discord was unable to see what was happening within. However, if he strained his hearing a bit, he could faintly hear the conversations within.
Home Sweet Clubhouse
Apple Bloom walked into her house, and was greeted by the usual sight of her living room. Scootaloo was crashed out on the couch, a box of take-out dumped on the floor next to her.
Sweetie Belle was probably off at work still. A quick glance at the clock on the wall showed that she wouldn’t be home for at another couple hours at least.
Treading quietly so she didn’t wake up her housemate, she silently went upstairs into her bedroom/workroom. Similar to Rarity’s Inspiration room (though arguably much more dangerous), Apple Bloom’s workroom was a mess of metal parts, wires, crystals and technical diagrams. Tucked away in a small corner of the room was a tiny bed draped with an old red comforter embroidered with apples and trees.
Rummaging around the room, the engineer finally found what she was looking for.
Slightly larger than a loaf of bread, it was a small yellow box with several switches and dials on the top. A taped on label read “Chaos Detector” in black penned ink.
Grabbing it, she gently set it in her saddlebag and gathered several more tools and instruments along with a small purse of bits for dinner.
Carefully descending the steps, she was surprised to hear Scootaloo up and about.
“Hey ‘Bloom! There is something at the door for you!”
Well, now that her housemate was up, there was no point in trying to be quiet anymore.
“Thanks Scoots! How was work today?”
“Meh. Same crap, different day. Just filing more paperwork and trying to resolve scheduling conflicts between the Canterlot and the Cloudsdale Weather Teams. Also, could you take a look at my wings? I tried doing a little gliding in them and I think some of the servos on the port wingtip are acting up.”
Putting her tools down, Apple Bloom moved over to look at the offending machinery.
“Yeah, it looks like you rammed the wingtip into something pretty hard and bent them again. You also have a couple small pebbles stuck in the bearing channels.” Grabbing a small crescent wrench and screwdriver she began to tinker on the artificial wing. “Have you been trying to do stunts again?”
“Hehe, well Rainbow Dash was in town on vacation and she hadn’t seen my new wing upgrades yet. Sooo, we kinda ended up racing a little and I sorta ran into a tree. Then I fell onto the ground. And then I rolled into a lake.” Scootaloo gave her friend a big smile of pure innocence.
Shaking her head, Apple Bloom finished cleaning up and straightening the wing.
“There ya go Scoots. Try not to mess it up again. Those are some pretty sensitive components you have attached to ya there.”
Walking to the door, she found a small vase of lilies tied with cord and a small note hanging off the side.
Bringing it inside, Apple Bloom set it on the table and opened the note.
“Dearest Apple Bloom,
For so long my heart was cold and set in stone,
I was living in a world of loneliness and sorrow.
Everything changed when I emerged from that explosion
And everything has changed and i now have reason to look forward to tomorrow.
My soul has found its love which before it could not comprehend
Before, I had no reason to love.
I had never before believed that could make my heart mend
For my feelings for you are vast, like the starry expanse above.
This feeling, it beats for you alone.
Also, here are some flowers.
-D”
Having read the note over Apple Bloom’s shoulder, Scootaloo could be heard gagging in the back of the room.
“Oh sweet baby Celestia on a tricycle, that was some of the worst poetry I think I have ever read.”
“Well ah thought it was kinda sweet.”
“If by sweet you mean diabetes inducing, then yes; I agree.”
Shooting Scootaloo a snide look, the yellow mare gently took the flowers and put them in a vase with some water.
Actually taking a look at her roommate while she was walking around, Scootaloo noticed the bruises and scraped covering her friend’s body.
“Bloom, what happened to you? Did you try to fix moving machinery again? I thought you had learned after the train incident”
Apple Bloom shuddered at the memory of trying to fix that damned train. After recovering from the awful recollection she responded to Scootaloo's query. “Nope. The Chaos Inhibitor Twilight and I was working on kinda blew up a little.”
Perking up at the thought of her friend being caught in some totally awesome explosions and action, Scootaloo suddenly became a lot more interested.
“So was that the large whump I heard this morning? I just assumed it was Derpy dropping another large object or accidentally releasing a small thunderstorm on the town again.”
“Well we still don’t know how it happened, and I actually came back to get some of my tools to analyze exactly what happened. But I really need to go and get food and take it to the library. I may or may not be back tonight, so go ahead and lock everything up; I have my spare key with me. Also, don’t forget to oil your wings. I noticed small amount of corrosion buildup in some of your flight guidance lines. ”
Nodding her hear in agreement with whatever Apple Bloom was saying, Scootaloo watched her best friend walk off towards the library.
With a quick glance at the vased flowers, the mechanical pegasus just whispered softly .“Who has she gotten herself involved with now...” her words lost in the breeze.
Ground Zero
After swinging by the cafe, Apple Bloom hurried up to return to the Library. The sun was beginning to set behind some of the houses, and enough time had already passed that some chaos particles may have already started to dissipate.
Walking through the front door she called out to the Librarian and her assistant.
“Hey Twilight, Spike! Ahm back with dinner!”
Like any growing child Spike came careening down the stairs at the mention of food. Twilight slowly followed behind, gingerly taking each step to avoid being banged up,
"Hey there! While you were out spike and I were trying to fix any of the other internal damage caused by the explosion. Did you get the tools you needed?"
“Yeah, I did. I want to go ahead and get started with the data gathering after dinner. I don’t want the risk having the energies dissipate too much before I can get some measurements.”
Setting the food on the table, the three quickly ate the dinner and began to gather the tools necessary for their analysis of the ground zero.
With Apple bloom leading, they slowly descended the stairs into the basement.
Setting up shop in a small cleared area by the stairs, they began to take their readings. Of the area…
Three hours later, they still weren't quite sure what had happened.
From what they could price together, it seemed like there was a massive release of energy in the room. But, the source had been external rather than emanating from the machinery itself. However, the most likely interesting part was the microcrystalline fractures in the wood walls on the room. Atypical of most wood damage there were tiny fractures through the material similar to the spider webbing found on impacted glass.
"Well Twilight, 'ahm completely stumped about what could have caused this. I don't think I have ever seen anything like this in organic materials like wood before."
Sitting quietly, Twilight was in deep thought. Suddenly she looked up with a look of epiphany.
"What if the wood was frozen?"
Applebloom gave her coworker a look of incomprehension.
"OK, so have you ever dipped something in liquid air?"
Nodding her head Applebloom responded "Yeah, I have. Though it was only once. Making liquid air takes huge amounts of energy, so I never got to mess with it much."
"Well if you dip something organic like wood or fruit into liquid air, it flash freezes it. Then, if you take that object and smash it with a hammer, it will shatter like glass."
Beginning to see where Twilight was coming from, she began to finish connecting the dots of what Twilight was saying.
"So what you're saying is that something caused the lab to freeze. Now what in Equestria could have caused that to happen to the entire room?"
"I don't know, but let's go upstairs and try to reconstruct what happened with what we know."
First: when activated, the inhibitor began to draw unprecedented amounts of magical power.
Second: After we lost control the inhibitor seemed to explode, and knocked us unconscious.
Third: when we returned to the lab after regaining consciousness, there was no trace of the inhibitor. All the equipment that managed the magic flow melted, and the other equipment shattered like glass. However, the center of the room and a small path are scorched as if by fire.
Sitting on the couch in the library's main room, the two mares were deep in thought.
Apple Bloom suddenly sat up, a look of epiphany on her face.
"Twilight, what if the inhibitor actually worked better than we thought?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, the whole point of the inhibitor was to draw off excessive entropic energy from a chaos event right? Well what if instead of giving it a small spontaneous chaos event like an explosion, we just kept feeding it more energy?"
"That would cause it to try to order the chaotic flow of energy being fed to it... oh no..."
"Oh no?"
"So magic is an intrinsic part of all the earth right?"
"Yes..."
"So by feeding it magical energy straight from the earth, the inhibitor essentially tried to remove all entropy from the planet. With no entropy, there would be no heat or temperature, effectively causing the world to freeze."
"That would explain how everything got cold enough to shatter. but how did they actually shatter?"
"Hmm well according to Neighton's third law, every action should have an equal and opposition reaction. a sudden reactive influx of heat and entropy would cause a similar explosion, but if the ordering of the planet happened as fast as I think it did, then the explosion should have left Ponyville a gigantic crater."
"Well, lookin' at the burn patterns on the ground, it doesn't look like a spontaneous influx of heat to me. What it looks like is similar to a river running into a lake. Almost like something guided the reaction to the inhibitor."
"Agreed. If it was a normal reaction, it would have most likely have started from the outside in. The big question still stands, what would have focused it like that?"
Another moment of silence reigned over the den.
"Well what is the opposite of ultimate order?"
“Well, ultimate chaos of course... but what would direct something like that?”
Between the two mares, a look of mixed comprehension and fear crept along their faces. As they said in unison, “Discord.”