Alright, make sure the Maredragoras are healthy, and please, for the love of whatever you hold sacred, remember that there is a difference between a tame Alraune and a sentient one.
...
It's easy; ones wear jewelry and can actually understand you when you speak to them.
...
Yes, be nice to the slime ponies too. 'Wave controllers' can cast magic spells, so that's an added incentive to be courteous.
...
Yes, now hurry! It's almost lunchtime.
Where was I? Oh, right, I lent this thing. What was the last entry again?... Pinkie mispronouncing 'oculist'... ah, that was a funny one. Not that I'd let the Crusaders anywhere near my books, even if they did nick an artifact a little while ago.
I seem to have neglected to say a bit about my appearance. I am, in human form, a few inches above six feet - and it's enough to tower over everything. Everything in this slice of reality is tiny by comparison! I'm about as tall as Iron Will, horns included! Of course, if he had human legs, he'd be taller by a head easily.
Not that it helps me any without chaos-based strength. I think I saw Will making his own umbrellas by bending the freaking iron by hand. (Though that could have easily been some other craft).
Back to ponies.
"Pinkie..." I wasn't sure how to break the news to her; I just supposed I had to 'be gentle'. "Regarding parties..."
"OH! Don't worry, I know you're gonna be busy, and you don't look like the kind for a surprise party." She can read a pony (or a human) pretty well. She knew Gilda wasn't going to like surprises, which is why she didn't pull any pranks on her, either... that particular incident was pretty much unintended and completely opposite to Pinkie's plan.
"Ehh... Well, that's the thing." I inhaled. Gentle, I could do gentle! "I am bad with crowds, I abhor exceedingly loud music - and that's a threshold not even I can discern-, I am awful with small talk, I am specially bad about current state of events (though that is subject to change in the near-future), I hate being teased, and I don't like some kinds of parties at all."
Then, I got an IDEA!
"I'd much rather throw you a small party..." Double idea combo! "Like a movie night, or something of the sort."
"With human movies?" Pinkie whispered, eyes wide and sparkly with excitement. She wasn't too affected by my refusal, it seemed.
"Have I seen any other kind?" I smirked.
She cheered and confetti exploded from behind her. I didn't have anything to do with that one.
We made some more small talk; rather, I listened and answered when spoken to. Yes, things back then got way better with time. It seems to have left me with a lot of apathy, though. The fastest way to get me to do something would be to anger me and give me a rather... direct outlet with low consequences.
I do have patience. Lots of it.
The problem being that it's not infinite, and faaaaar less than Celestia, and I now have urges to use magic when emotionally distressed.
Burning fists make an excellent deterrent against further aggravations, though. Barring that, in prince form, there is a black haze on my wings and an eerie white glow on my horn.
Plus a few other, more subtle and unsettling, changes.
And dark storm clouds hanging overhead, complete with ominous lightning - comes with the 'wings plus incredible power' package. Luna is fond of that, as you might know; the dark princess has a flair for the dramatic.
Speaking of dark... if you want to get technical, the three kinds of ponies can use dark magic regardless of whenever or not the individual can cast spells. You just have to channel either the magic towards a purpose (stamina, strength, juice up a spell) or channel a spell or ability through the magic (if the dark magic pool is large enough)... well, the later makes for a much wilder, much more powerful ability or skill or spell with less strain (concentration, mental and/or physical stress, etc) on you, with the caveat that it's also harder to pull your punches and easier to lose yourself on it. It took me... well, that's for later.
The chaos thing is similar. It's similar to... raw transmutation and abjuration energy, topped with heaps of raw willpower and creativity, with a direct pipeline to the Collective. It can be used to 'cut the middleman' of most regular magics and manipulate things around me more directly. Discord's particular 'flavor' was used to distort things, minds, physics, and assorted transformations; it imprinted, and it takes a while to make it fade.
'Chaos' is, technically, what allows magic to account for feelings, states of mind, and imagination - otherwise, it would be impossible to shape even wet clay without having to get every last number and equation that the shape and forces involved had to use. Seriously, that's a lot of numbers. Still, the energy's own malleable nature allows me to funnel it straight into the other reserves to recover quickly or keep up for far longer then normal, or do the reverse and let the original intent be carried to ridiculous heights.
I'm going to have to tell you about the... changes I brought upon the place.
Again, that kind of maneuver is terribly unsafe and not to be attempted by untrained, normal people. In ponies, the pools are not distinct, but the same effect is done by letting your emotions fuel the spell.
How unsafe? Think Rapidash Twilight. She's powerful enough to pull it off without harm to herself, and she'd never willingly hurt another pony, so she's clear.
An Order Stone is misnamed; it's more like a stone enchanted with a series of spells meant to prevent reality from being changed by magic in certain ways. Needless to say, it won't even detect madness illusions, and can't protect you from having the ground, metal, or even your face reconstructed by magicking sheer force upon it. Chaos magic is diverse enough for anyone to get around such a limitation even if those very effects are your specialty. You just need to understand the magic.
Oh, it's a... a stormy sea. Rough, full of primal energy... it resonates easily with the forces that shape the land - lava flows, tectonic movements and all of those primal forces; it is raw emotion, instinct, imagination, and change all at the same time, somehow.
There is a reason why not even the princesses have as much of an affinity as I do - the majority of the magic they have resonates with other things. I am a living Nexus... well, technically anything with magic is as well (or at the least a Focal Point), and Celestia and Luna aren't far behind in all honesty, but my affinity and raw strength not only lets me turn that slowly churning ocean into the other types with ease, it resonates with the world when barely even trying.
A fact that I milk for all it's worth.
Others would have a whole lot of trouble tapping into it. I just see all that water and go 'hey, I need a stable lake, so I'll take a lake's worth of water from the ocean and cut it off from the currents'. I can take a bucket, or a teaspoon, or a drop, or ten times Skymirror Lake without fear of being swept up in the waves. The waves, in turn, crash constantly upon other parts of me and provoke all of those urges.
If anyone ever feels that kind of energy in the environment... well, they'd be expecting it, since it would be a really darn uninhabitable place like a magma vent or somesuch, but they'd be in danger from it if they aren't careful.
At least, in a less magical world than Equestria's. Here, those parts are limited to the Anomalies, where the raging rapids and the rough seas can't decide if they are one of the other, and have really strange effects on the surroundings... yes, the Everfree does have some freaky unnatural stuff going on beyond the 'things take care of themselves' angle. Ever see cliffs appear and disappear overnight? What about a tree so ludicrously huge you can build a city on its branches, a city inside it, and another in its roots? Because I totally have the pictures.
Perception is such a funny thing; just a few words, and the world is turned on its head!
Lord, I was born a rambling man.
Though that is what I get for studying magic.
More specifically, studying magic while being a bona fide force of nature studying under two other such forces of nature, a wizard living inside the Collective thus outside normal time, and...
"Say, Twilight, do you think you could put in a good word or two with Zecora?" I asked, perhaps a little suddenly, since she shook her head trying to get her mind on track.
"Huh? What for?"
"Well, besides the princesses, who else do you know who understands strange and powerful magic?" I am not sorry.
"Oh, that makes sense..."
... a zebra shamaness/healer/alchemist/sage with a thing for rhymes.
The more things I imagine, the more pseudo-spells I have (here is where eclectic collections and interests make me shine). And just talking to them increase the list! Though normal spells... yeah, harder, but oh so worth it... the things I get involved with? Crazy stuff. Modifications to my staff and artifacts 'contracted' or 'subservient' to it are among the crowning list.
I'm rambling again...
Well, it's not like small talk is worth playing back word-by-word. It was mostly an update on what did they did while I was still in Canterlot, which wasn't that long before then. But after that...
"I'm feeling itchy, and we have to go back soon... I have an idea." I said, smiling.
And then our merry little band was sitting in a cloud roughly as high as Cloudsdale, outside of Ponyville. I took better care to imagine the things I wanted to happen; I took the Essence of the cloud (a topic for later, I guess) and reshaped it to allow anything to stay on it. Then, I wove some raw magic and a colorful piece of paper appeared in front of me, then folded itself into a paper plane.
"Are those Fluttershy's colors?" Rarity asked, apparently getting used to the idea of me doing stuff like translocation all the time.
"Yep." Inhaling, taking a bit of pegasus magic, using unicorn principles to shape it, then blowing a tailwind; I let the plane fly over the town. "They've got nice words in them, or a small, inspiring phrase."
While Pinkie was happily bouncing on my mildly modified clouds, the plane rode the rolling air currents I made and gently touched down on a table next to Lyra's cheesecake.
Bon-Bon noticed it first, though, and took it into her hooves. The plane unfolded by itself, the yellow and pink paper had something written in blue.
Lyra caught the next with her magic, a pink and magenta one with blue writing.
"Smile"
Soon, another plane was drifting through the air, and another, and another! A veritable river of rainbow paper craft of all styles and designs danced through the air, spreading over the town and landing near a pony.
"Is that Luna's?" Rainbow asked. "What does it say?"
"Something a wise old turtle told a student of his once."
"Turtle?" Twilight raised her eyebrows.
"Well, a tortoise. A character in a movie." I shrugged, then blew softly on the purple plane, which flew in the direction of the schoolhouse.
"What does it say?"
"A little something about the past, the future, and right now."
"The past?"
Another shrug. "It's history."
"And t' future?" That was Applejack.
"It's uncertain." I was using all kinds of inspiration - cards, quotes...
"And now?"
I smiled, turning to Rarity (who spoke). "It's a gift, that's why it's called Present."
A huge gasp sucked in the air to my other side; Pinkie's eyes opened wide and sparkled. "That's genius!" She exclaimed, smiling so much I feared for the general sanity of the world.
"As much of it that'll remain after we are through with it."
Hush, go bother some other paranormal entity.
Some said things like 'Be the change you wish to see in the world'... others were simply single words.
Celestia's papers say 'Lead', Cadence's... what else? 'Love'.
I could feel the soft awe and wonder that came from the little town, strengthening me, feeding my new magic in a way more fit for me that Discord's ever will be. It all comes to resonances, be them in the world, or the feelings of its inhabitants; surges and/or changes of emotion, particularly those caused directly by my powers, ensure my own continued survival.
A small flicker in my ears, and I knew that every last one had been read.
I mentally pulled a - you could call it a 'string', and each paper began to dissolve into tiny motes of colored light. The lights flew through the air, sorted by colors so that the most similar ones would attract each other, then softly vanished into thin air.
"Hmm... yeah, that'll last me a while." I said. I just had to relax a little and I could override the desire to be polite and stop using contractions.
"That was beautiful." Rarity commented, and Twilight nodded.
"Just doing something nice. I mean, it's only a matter of time before someone does something stupid and makes me angry."
"That ain't nice t' say." AJ frowned.
"Don't take that tone with me, Missy; you're one of the primary offenders."
"Hey!" Both her and Rainbow were feeling indignant enough to speak out, the others just frowned.
"Answer me this: How many years in a row was Spring late?"
Ah... it's embarrassing to even remember being told the number!
"And yet, you didn't use magic." I said offhandedly.
"Hey! It's trad-!"
"No Applejack." I cut her off, placing a hoof in front of her face. "That is no excuse. Sure, better organization allowed you to get things done on-schedule while following tradition... but if tradition is getting in the way then you should just suck it up and leave it behind."
I stood up and breathed out, and I think I looked larger than they had previously thought, because only AJ and Rainbow looked like they wanted to speak further. I was not done, however.
"Tradition is a fine guide, but a lousy master; only fools take traditions as law. Pride is... like money; they change value all the time, and there are things that they can never afford, like family."
That barb sucked out the wind right out of Applejack's sails, making her plop down on her haunches and look away, ears flat against her head.
"You were so angry over Twilight using magic that you didn't even bother to ask if she was hurt, and when when she cried over being berated for using the ability that brings her joy on a fundamental level you just kept glaring at her." Rainbow backed off after that one.
"Those who hoard either for the things' own sake are... pretty worthless. I make my own mistakes, sure, but at least I know when others are being silly about it."
"Ah get it, Ah get it." AJ said, hoof waving in a placating gesture. "Those ain't mah best moments."
"I still love you; just that some of those incidents could have gone a little better." I shrugged with my wings (totally awesome, by the way).
"Trixie would drive you up a wall."
"Meh, she wasn't that bad. She's just a showmare. Sure, things wouldn't have been much different even if her show wasn't heckled less than five minutes in, but it's not like she told anyone to bring an Ursa to town."
Hmm... they are right; when I'm annoyed I come across as bitter a lot. It must be my voice, since I'm sure I'm not as emotionally invested at it sounds.
I made a mental note to ask when the princess's trip to Saddle Arabia would take place, and another to investigate why I knew things from a season that hadn't aired by the time Discord 'selected' me.
"I'll take care of things as they come, so whatever. Ready to go back?"
After saying our goodbyes, and assuring them that no, I really am not as bitter as I sound, I returned them to the ground so that they could spread word about 'both' mes, then took Twilight back with me to Canterlot.
It was time to talk to the council of nobles. Though I didn't know it at the time.