A minor variation

by notMurphy


For Want of a War, Epsilon

Chapter 6,
For Want of a War
Epsilon

She climbed the last rung, pausing to maintain her balance, more difficult without - 'don't think about it, think about the problem and the solution.' Both forehooves on the top, she moved her right hind leg onto the top of the ladder, experiencing a moment of vertigo. ' Right, maze. Some ponies use that old 'stick to the left-hoof side' method. Doesn't work in a maze where the walls aren't all contiguous.' Now she raised her left hind leg into the air, bending deeply at the knee, and brought it down on top of the shelf. 'I say why accept the rules presented to you?' Rainbow Dash allowed herself a smirk of satisfaction as she surveyed the library from on top of her bookshelf perch.

A moment later she caught a glimpse of orange and yellow as her earth pony friend climbed another stack some distance away. 'That's funny, why do I feel jealous all of a sudden? Not important, the two of us should have an easier time getting everypony back together.' Dash waved as vigorously as she could without threatening her balance. A moment later she was rewarded with an answering wave from Jackie - who pointed at a row of bookshelves halfway between the two. The blue mare nodded and began negotiating her way along the top of their bookbound maze.

Half a dozen hoofsteps later the inventor felt she had regained her sense of balance and was moving at a quicker pace when a flash of pink caught her eye, off to the side. "Di? Is that you... " she was not prepared for the scene of farcical combat she beheld as she moved closer. "Hang on, I'm coming!", the former pegasi knew that with Discord's 'No Loud Voices' rule Dianne likely hadn't heard her, but she felt she had to say it anyhoof.

The conflict was taking a turn for the worse... she thought. 'It's like they're reaching through non-euclidean four dimensional space! I could see the spirit of Chaos doing that, but Dianne? No time to worry about it - I'm not losing anypony today or any other day.' By the time she had made it to the two combatants - in the 'Self Help' section - Dash knew it was already over. Watching her quiet friend shrink and inflate, folding in on herself and warping in ways matter clearly never could, she felt sick to her stomach. It was a relief to see her finally return to her original form... even if she looked as though she were being drained of color and tone.

The final straw was the look of disappointment and outright boredom on Discord's face. Without thinking she leapt from the shelftop at the draconequus's head, her shriek of rage sounding like an angry balloon with a pinprick.

For his part, the spirit of disharmony never saw it coming. One moment he was trying to figure out how to salvage anything from his waste of an encounter with not-Pinkie and then - WHAM! Pony-to-the-head. His instinct was to curl up and try to lessen the impact, but he hadn't counted on full-contact full-spectrum pony grabbing onto his neck and refusing to let go - so the two of them ended up rolling like a wheel - only coming to rest when they finally crashed into a stack of 'Daring Do' novels set up to commemorate the upcoming release of the thirteenth novel of the series.

**** *** ****

"Ohff. For the record, Miz Dash, that is not the right kind of rainbow to hit me with."
"You son of a timberwolf, I saw what you did to Dianne I'm gonna-"
"Who?"
"Dianne: twentysomething mare, about yea tall, pink coat and pink hair, kinda mellow, medical cutie mark-"
"Oh, so that's what she calls herself. So, what, should I call you 'Danger' then? I think Rainbow Crash is a better-"
The advantage to performing martial arts, even in a relaxed form like Tail-Chi, is that when you really need a move your body knows what to do with barely a thought. Dash found herself standing on her hind legs, forehooves extended, left under right, in the final stance of 'Pony tosses beachball' by the time she had decided she was going to hit the trash talking amalgamation. The aforementioned was busy picking himself out of a pile of young adult novels.

"Ouch. I really mean that - oww. We haven't even gotten to the serious discussion yet."
"Stop acting like you know us. Do you know, when Rare first told me about what happened to you, I actually felt bad for you? But you're a jerk. Doesn't make any of this ok, but I can see how you're making this all so much worse - and I bet you don't even see it-"

"Aht, ah ah... " Discord wagged a claw in admonition, "one accusation of how horrible a monster I truly am at a time. I'm assuming you came to that last show a little late, but let me make this clear to you: your friend did that to herself - she directly rejected help from a source I never expected, and instead chose to... take on a different perspective."

"That can't be the whole story."
"It never is, but in this case nothing I have said is a lie, or even much of a twisting of events."
"What about the crazy bent space stuff?"
"I couldn't do that to her if I wanted to."
"Really?"
"Well, let me put it this way: if I were to bend and twist a pony like that, what you'd be left with a would not look like a pony."
"I still don't like you."
"None of us ever appreciate our creditors, 'Danger' "
"Pffft! That was funny, I'll give you that - but you've never- … ergh, stupid language rules."
Discord frowned, "this is at least the second time I've seen one of you ponies stumble over your choice of words - what are you doing?"

Rainbow Dash eyed the creature of chaos and shrugged, "I can't see how telling you can make anything worse: One of the things we went over about dealing with you 'deific' types is to avoid using absolute terms, stuff like 'Never', 'Always', and 'Anything'. Specifically we're not supposed to give you anything that sounds like a challenge or the sort of thing a hero says in story and then comes to regret when 'somehow' her words end up being ironically twisted into some horseapple of a situation."

The draconequus stared at her for so long that the pony didn't expect a reply of any kind. "If you ponies are doing this on purpose, I am not amused." He paced, paws behind his back. "It was Celestia, wasn't it? I knew she'd never keep her end."

"What are you saying about the Princess?" Rainbow bridled, ready to get back to kicking some 'quus.
"This whole... you know what, it would be easier to show you than tell you."
"Hold on a second, I think I hear the others-"
Discord snapped his fingers together, he and the spectrum over blue mare disappearing in a flash of light.

*** * ***

They stood on ground that didn't exist, in a place that wasn't there anymore, watching fillies and colts who had long since grown into adults. Everything had a faded hue, and Rainbow Dash could see through herself. 'This is so far beyond weird that I can't even freak out.'

"Cloudsdale's Young Fliers Summer Camp, circa 988 CE. Due to renovations of the main training grounds the camp was moved to a temporary site near Canterlot and Ponyville. While there are a multitude of students this season, we're only concerned with three of them: Bar Bell, Fluttershy Poesy, and Rainbow Danger Dash."

It was like an out of pony experience, watching the three idiots pick on Fluttershy, 'how long has it been since anypony thought they could get away with doing that? Oh, right, a decade.' "How are you doing this?"

"It's magic, I don't have to explain it. Shh... the best part is coming up." Discord hunched over, crunching loudly from the bucket of popcorn he was holding.

The race, the worst mistake of her entire life. The pale pegasus signaled the start, Dash's new perspective allowing her to see that she and 'Dumbell' had indeed managed to whirl 'Shy around and cause her to fall. She wanted to throw up, she wanted to scream, she wanted to dive after the filly right now. She continued to watch.

The two racers curved around the first turn, the colt seeing that he was going to lose distance knocked her younger self off-course. 'This is when I pause, and the nail... ' Something was wrong, all of Rainbow's shoes remained firmly on her hooves. The filly gathered her strength and continued the race, a grin of focused competition plastered on her muzzle. Faster and faster she dived after the colt, reaching speeds that made her contrail visible as pegasus magic and aerodynamics fought for supremacy. The mare's eyes reduced to pinpricks, months of research, calculations, and experiments telling her what would happen next: something that was impossible.

"No way, there is NO WAY that a filly can generate the wingpower to... " Thoom. A disc of rainbow hued light exploded outward, washing over everything and leaving a trail of wonder behind it. "That never... I don't even... "

The victorious pegasus filly landed, proudly accepting the accolades of the other campers and taking the chance to show off her newly earned cutie mark, a white cloud emitting a tri-color lightning bolt - it looked fast even sitting still.

Discord leaned over the mare, who had collapsed, snaking his head down level with hers. "One thing. She let me change one thing, said it wouldn't make any difference. Can you guess what I picked?"

"How could you... do, do you mean Fluttershy was supposed to DIE!?"
"Oh, your fine feathered friend is completely unharmed. Better than unharmed, in fact. For the first time in a very long time she isn't afraid. Want a peek?" Discord reached a paw out an impossibly long distance to the ground and caused their viewpoint to warp to the middle of a forest clearing far below. The young yellow pegasus was ushering animals from hiding, smiling with a serenity Rainbow had rarely seen on her.

"How..."
"I think this calls for a little rewind, don't you?" the serpentine figure fiddled with knobs on a small black box. Everything became a blurred whirlwind in reverse, and when it stopped you Fluttershy hung frozen in the air, plunging earthward. When the pony didn't respond to his nonverbal cues, Discord picked Rainbow Dash up and carried her over to the point directly below the tragic trajectory of the plummeting pegasus. "Knowing you, I think you'll want a detailed view of this next part - you'd certainly never believe me if I simply described it."

Thoughts raced through her mind like a typhoon. She simultaneously felt like she was no longer in her body and that she was trapped in her own skull, unable to control her body. 'Time' started again, and she watched the younger incarnation of her friend fall... and be caught by a swarm of butterflies. There was nothing to snap, she was so far beyond anything she could understand that it really didn't make a difference anymore. Somehow this physical impossibility seemed 'right', seemed like what should have happened - 'but that would mean.'

"That's right. Your sacrifice, the injuries you suffered, the guilt and agony you felt, the mortifying embarrassment of flight training for 'special' ponies you guilted her into, and the storm incident that again nearly cost her her life. None of it was necessary, it had no meaning." Discord placed a conciliatory paw on her shoulder, which she didn't try to shrug away. "Heavy stuff, I know - but hey, it means that none of the sacrifices you've made since then to try and 'atone' were necessary either. Hay, you're so far ahead of the game you could stop expressing any altruistic behavior at all and still be karmically set for the rest of your life."

"What about the others? What happens to them, without the cloudboom?"
"Oh? Are you sure you want to know?"
"Please... I can't stand not knowing."
"Let me see here... the rainbow led a confused Applejack back to her family farm where she accepted a position of responsibility, becoming the cornerstone of the farm and a shining beacon of honesty and hard work. 'Dianne' was shocked out of her childhood depression by that same rainbow, can you believe it, and became a champion of laughter and joy, quite literally able to bring a smile to the face of every pony, donkey, and zebra she meets. Rarity discovered a huge cache of gemstones and realized her childhood dream of becoming a famous designer of clothing, her belief in dreams and beauty driving her to be as generous with her sister pony as she could, oh there was something about the rainbow in her story, too. Twilight Sparkle was distracted in the middle of an important examination and discovered the immense reservoir of magical potential she had, becoming Princess Celestia's special student and studying further and broader into the field of magic than any pony since Starswirl the Bearded. Your counterpart -"

"That's enough. Too much. I... is, is this real?"
"Are you going to trust me if I say it is?"
"There have to be some things, something that not even you would... " she swallowed. "Yes, whatever you say now, I'll believe - just tell me, is this really what would have happened if I hadn't known about Fluttershy's fall?"

"Yes." Victory wasn't as sweet as he'd expected. It tasted a whole lot like ash. In his plan she was supposed to decide that if her actions had no consequences then she could do anything she wanted - and become the ultimate Egotist. It would have been hilarious. This wasn't funny, it wasn't even mildly amusing.

* *** *

"C'mon, it was this way, Ah'm sure of it!" Jackie spurred her friends as they raced to reach where she'd seen Rainbow Dash leap into confrontation with the spirit of disharmony by herself. The fact that the fastest they could run was a swift walk was tearing at her last nerves. It was like running through molasses, it was like a bad dream.

Four ponies piled into the cleared area in time to see Discord reappear holding a slate gray pony. Ignoring the advancing mares, he whispered something to the pony before setting her down.

"Rainbow...?" Rarity choked out. The pony looked up at her, not out of curiosity or in recognition, but with a weary sense of obligation she expressed with her entire being. She didn't say anything.

Twilight glanced at Dash and away again. "C... clinical depression will affect one in six ponies at some point in their lives. Hhhh... hug therapy has only proven to be approximately 30% effective."

"Stupid Discord - how's she supposed to learn from this if she's comatose?" Dianne gestured at herself in a grandiose manner, " 'I don't turn ponies to stone', what the buck ever. What you've left of her doesn't look much more useful than a paperweight."

'I can fix this. Once I'm the undisputed power of this world I can fix all of this - it's the victors who write history. Discord pulled the library rules sign from thin air running a claw through the 'No Running' rule and producing an ear-splitting claw-on-metal screech. Any pony who hadn't been looking at him certainly was now. "Hey, fruit pony, wanna race?"