//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 
// Story: Piece of Chaos 
// by TheGuyWithTheFace 
//------------------------------//

	It was a couple of days after the ‘accident’ had taken place and three ponies were walking side by side through the park. Under normal circumstances Crimson would be hovering slightly overhead as the others walked, unfortunately he was told to avoid any unnecessary flying as to not agitate the injury. Despite his injury Crimson kept his happy attitude, and had forgiven Looking Glass quickly, citing bro code pg. 234 sub section f: Bros before painful, temporarily crippling injuries. 
The three had been nearly inseparable since that day (not that Looking Glass exactly had a choice in the matter). Every day was spent trying to find ways to bring Glass out of his depression. This was a tremendously difficult task. Since the accident in Twilight’s laboratory, Looking Glass’s magic had gotten more and more powerful and unstable. Where once we could perform precise tasks with enough concentration, any magic use at all would now cause some form of destruction, varying from combustion, explosion, implosion, and one or two instances of spontaneous alchemy (potentially useful, if it hadn’t been for the utensils turning into dirt rather than gold). After bowling they appeared to be making some progress; he actually maintained a smile for about 15 minutes. It was slight, but Looking Glass’s attitude was definitely improving.

They made light conversation as they walked, talking about nothing in particular like Twilight’s latest study or how bored Crimson was, (it seemed to be a subject he was quite fond of considering he found a way to mention it every few minutes). 

“Guys, there’s like, 1,000 other things we could be doing right now, why are we just taking a boring walk through the park?”

Twilight shot Crimson an angry looked and replied, “This may come as a shock to you Crimson, but some people like to actually enjoy nature and the scenery, rather than see it fly by at break neck speeds.”

“Since when is a trimmed lawn, benches, paved sidewalks and about a dozen trees nature? If you want to enjoy nature, I’d suggest we head to the Ever-Free. You’d get your nature, and there’s a chance something interesting will happen” Crimson shot back quickly.

“Sorry, but my idea of interesting is not being attacked by a hydra while we’re lost in the woods.” Twilight shivered slightly to herself as she remembered her run in with the hydra at Froggy Bottom Bog.

“Ahem, I do believe you’re forgetting the fact that Glassy here has been turned into a potential magical bazooka.”
“CRIMSON!” Twilight yelled in outrage at Crimson’s insensitivity.  

“What? Since when is it a bad thing that our buddy here can turn a mountain into a mole hill if he sneezed in its direction?” Twilight didn’t respond but rather gave Crimson a look that could be roughly translated into ‘I will vaporize you to your very atoms, reconstruct you from those atoms, and then collapse you into a singularity.’ For his part, Crimson Skies was unfazed by this look (partly because he understood only a handful of those words) and kept walking as if nothing had been said at all. Noting that Twilight was on the brink of making good on her threat, Looking Glass stepped in. 

“It’s okay Twilight, for once Crimson is actually right about something.”

“I AM!?!?” Crimson said in shock. 

Looking Glass rolled his eyes and continued with what he was saying, “Crimson is right in that we can’t just pretend the problem doesn't exist and maybe the best thing to do right now is to learn to laugh at it a little.” As much as she hated to admit it Looking Glass, and by extension Crimson, was right; although this was definitely no laughing matter, ignoring it wasn’t going to help it either. Rather than openly admit defeat, a thought which survived a whopping .3 seconds before being killed off, Twilight simply lightly nodded her head in agreement and didn’t say a word.  Twilight then looked up to see a small figure running towards them in the distance. 

“Hey what’s that over there?” Twilight asked, pointing her hoof towards the distant figure. Both colts nodded and strained their eyes to try and make out what it was. From the look of it, it seemed pretty small, maybe the size of a foal about Applebloom’s age. The notion of it being a foal was dismissed however, when they realized that whatever it was, it was running on only two legs. “Spike!” Twilight said in excitement as she ran out to meet her assistant. Looking Glass and Crimson followed quickly behind and soon the met the hurried dragon, doubled over in exhaustion, clutching a very small package and note in his claws. Spike made a few feeble attempts to communicate, but all of them were in vain do to his lack of oxygen. “Slow down Spike, catch your breath and then tell us what you’re in such a hurry over” Twilight said with motherly care. 

Spike took her advice and simply huffed in place as the three looked on anxiously. Finally he had gathered himself up enough to start talking. “Twilight... it’s… the princess… she sent… an urgent package and… a note” Spike managed to say between his panting. Twilight quickly took the box from Spike, at which point he collapsed and immediately started to sleep, and opened the letter that came with it.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

After your visit to Canterlot over your friend serious condition, I began to look into a solution myself. While I couldn’t find a permanent cure, the ring that I delivered to you is very powerful, and should allow Looking Glass to have more control over his magic. Simply slip the ring onto his horn and it should begin working immediately. I apologize that I couldn’t find something more absolute but this should prove very useful.

Your Faithful Mentor,

Princess Celestia

For a brief moment all three simply stood there wide eyed in disbelief. The moment passed and viscously tore apart the cardboard box that supposedly held Looking Glass’s salvation. After the tattered brown shreds settled on the grass, Twilight was left with a small black ring with intricate blue carvings along its perimeter. With it held in her magical grip, Twilight examined it more closely. She could tell this was an extremely potent artifact; I gave off more residual energy than most unicorns even have access to. “Well,” Crimson said, interrupting Twilight’s studying, “what are we waiting for? Let’s get that thing on and see what it can do.”

Silently agreeing with Crimson, Twilight levitated the ring over to Looking Glass’s horn. She Hesitated a moment as it was just above his horn. Despite it having been send directly from Celestia, Twilight couldn’t help but be nervous; this was an extremely powerful object and she had no idea what would happen when it was used. The magenta mare inhaled deeply and carefully slid the ring down Looking Glass’s horn until it could go no further. With it in place she quickly jumped back about two yards from Looking Glass and waited for something to happen. All three simply snood there, gazes fixed on Looking Glass’s horn for any reaction. None came. Crimson then slowly hovered over to Looking Glass and closely looked at the ring wrapped around his horn. “All due respect to the Princess, but I think this things useless.” As the Pegasus said this Looking Glass’s face collapsed into a deep frown as yet another attempt was rendered pointless, or so he thought at least.

“Don’t be stupid Crimson, I can sense the magic in this thing and I can tell you: it far from useless” Twilight quickly interjected to raise Looking Glass’s hopes a bit. “This thing is supposed to help keep the excess magic in check, right?” She reasoned, “If that’s true then maybe the ring only activates when the wearer uses magic.” This logic succeeded in dispelling Looking Glass’s frown; unfortunately it was fear that replaced it.

“I-I can’t try it out here. You saw what happened to my living room. Most of that happened when I would try to pick something up” Looking Glass explained. “What if it fails, somepony could get seriously hurt.”

Twilight laid a reassuring hoof on Looking Glass’s should and said, “Don’t worry, the princess has never failed me before… besides the royal wedding…” Twilight added under her breath.  Luckily the combination of Twilight’s touch and her encouragement were enough to convince Looking Glass to try.

“Alright, I’ll try something simple, but I want all of you to get really far back from me, got it?” Both his friends nodded and got a good distance from the super-charged unicorn. “Okay,” he said to himself, “let’s just do something simple like uhh….” Looking Glass looked around him until he had found a small pile of pebbles near a tree. “Well, here goes nothing.” 

Relax, this thing works great, trust me. 

This though came just in time to push him over the point of no return. He closed his eyes and began to visualize the rock levitating into the air and channeled his magic into his horn. The pebble began to shake violently as the massive amount of magic bombarded it. Then, just as it was about to burst the ring’s engravings began to glow and change Looking Glass’s brown aura a dark shade of blue. The pebble’s tremors immediately ceased and it did exactly as it was supposed to: peacefully rising into the air and simply floating there, no explosions or anything! Twilight and Crimson both burst into energetic celebration, Twilight bouncing up and down in glee and Crimson taking to the skies in complete disregard for his injury,  Looking Glass just stared in utter amazement. After, all the failures, they found a solution, or rather was handed a solution. Granted it didn’t actually solve the main problem, he still had a ton of magic in him, but now he’d at least not have to worry about killing himself or anyone else every time he used any magic. “I can’t believe it” he finally managed to say, still in too much shock to register any actual happiness. He turned his head to see a decent sized rock, about the size of a cart wheel, and decided to see if he could pick it up to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. Sure enough the ring glowed and the rock rose without the slightest of hesitation.  

Told ya
Ignoring that, the unfettered joy hit Looking Glass like a freight train and he erupted into cheering, joining his friends’ festivities. After a few moments they calm down enough to talk. “We did it! We did it! ... Well, technically the princess did it but still, Hooray!” Twilight excitedly exclaimed.

As Crimson swooped low after his four victory back flips, he shouted, “HELL YEAH! Glassy’s gonna a-okay!” before ascending again for a few barrel rolls.

“I still can’t believe this thing worked” Looking Glass admitted. “How come you never mentioned anything about this thing before Twilight?”

“Easy, I’ve never seen or heard anything about this in any of the books I’ve ever read. But these carvings on the other hand I do recognize. This writing is in ancient equestrian. I’ve only ever seen it on the elements of harmony when I first found them. At this point I think only the princesses still know how to read it” Twilight explained. “But that still doesn’t explain why I’ve never read about it before. I’ve taken entire classes on ancient equestrian artifacts and relics none of them ever mentioned this ring.”

“Who gives a shit?” Crimson bluntly asked as he landed next to the unicorns. “All that matters is Glassy’s good to go.” To emphasize this Crimson gave Looking Glass a playful smack to the back which sent Looking Glass immediately to the ground. Crimson and Twilight’s gazes shifted a few times between the downed unicorn and each other, “Well, technically that’s par for the course with Glass.” Twilight, know of her friend’s… less than athletic… build, accepted this explanation and returned to the previous conversation.

“Personally, I’d like to know what kind of magic we’re dealing with here, and two: as much as I hate to say it, this isn’t a cure. This is just masking the more dangerous symptoms. Looking Glass is still carrying a very dangerous amount of magic and it’s still growing constantly” Twilight answered grimly, her excited attitude quickly dissolving away. 

Crimson Skies returned Twilight’s earlier gaze with one of his own, which, substantially less eloquently, told her to, ‘SHUT THE HELL UP, AND STOP BEING A KILLJOY!’ Knowing she was right, Twilight didn’t back down under his gaze. Luckily, before anything more could have been said a bouncing ball of pink fur dropped out of a nearby tree into the middle of the three friends. Before any of them could say a word she yelled, “Surprise!!” and jumped enthusiastically into the air, producing a small explosion of confetti from Celestia knows where. “You’re all invited to a ‘Congratulations on your Deus ex Machina plot resolution’ party tonight.” 

Everyone stared dumbfounded at Pinkie Pie as they tried to come up with an explanation for what had just happened. Twilight, having most experience in Pinkie Pie related nonsense, was the first to come to her senses and asked the question on everyone’s mind, “Pinkie… what?”

Pinkie turned to Twilight with a massive grin and said, “I’m throwing a party because Looking Glass has control of his magic again, and that’s more than enough reason to party. Especially since you don’t even need a reason to party except for wanting to party and really who doesn’t want to party? I always want to party, I guess that’s why my talent is partying and….” 

Exactly how long pinkie would have continued to babble is unknowable. Equestria’s top scientists have determined that the threshold for equine conversation is approximately 529 minutes at one moment divided by the pony’s inhibition level. Pinkie Pie is rated a zero for inhibitions. The only reason she stopped rambling was that she was interrupted by Looking Glass who had finally regained enough of his senses to try to ask the 3 questions he had in his head at once, “How is that even… when did you… What the…” 

Crimson, never being one to look too deeply into the random things that always seem to happen around Ponyville, calm said, “Sounds good, what time?"

“Finally, somepony who’s making sense,” Pinkie said with an exaggerated eye roll, “The party’s at 8 o’clock at Sugarcube Corner, everpony’s gonna be there. See Ya!” As she said that Pinkie began energetically bouncing down the path through the park, stopping every few feet, to say hi to ponies and invite them to the party; thus leaving Twilight and Looking Glass with extremely perplexed expressions, crimson smiling slightly, and Spike still out cold and soaring loudly.
Looking Glass looked over to his friend, who was wearing a tranquil smile on his face, and asked him “How can you be so calm about what just happened? She just appeared out of nowhere, announced a party for an event that literally just happened a few seconds ago that she had already invited multiple people to, and all you can ask is when and where! How can you not be wondering how any of that was possible?”

“Simple,” Crimson replied, “party means cake, and I like cake. That’s all I need to know. See you guys there.” And with that, Crimson began to casually trot back into town towards his house, dreamily thinking of what kind of delicious confections pinkie would be serving.  Twilight and Looking Glass shared an incredulous look and decided that that was enough craziness for one afternoon, said their goodbyes and went they separate ways back home to prepare for the party, both failing to remember a certain purple-scaled child who was asleep in the middle of the park.