Lyra sat quietly in the center of the clearing, focusing on the altered pony who was hiding behind the pedestal. He actually did a remarkably good job of concealing himself, considering what a small hiding place he was using.
She stood and walked over to him unsteadily, sitting behind the other side of the pedestal and peering over at him. Lyra waited patiently for Leyline to acknowledge her presence. Every second spent waiting scraped at the parts of her psyche tainted by Eris, the chaotic presence demanding that she take some kind of action. Lyra silently grit her teeth in defiance, putting most of her concentration into keeping the rogue magic from forcing its way to the surface.
Five minutes passed. The pony on the far side of the stone platform gave no indication that he was even alive, besides the sound of his breathing. Lyra shifted uneasily.
After an eternity of waiting, the stallion slowly peeked over the pedestal, his glance flitting about nervously. He stood carefully, as though every movement pained him. He looked back toward his wings in confusion, giving them a prod with a hoof. Leyline lost his balance as he stood upon three legs, toppling to the earth. He grunted upon impact, lifting himself up. “Imbalance. No. Four better.” The stallion’s voice lapsed into an unstable giggle, and he began to totter away towards the exit, muttering to himself.
“Wait!” Lyra trotted around the stone base and called out to him. “Hang on a second!”
The stallion froze for a second, then whirled around, crouching in a ready pose. His eyes flickered over Lyra, and he let out a strangled cry as he focused on her fang. “No! Eris! Stay back!” He backed away, only for one of his hind hooves to catch on a divot in the earth. He toppled over, writhing frantically to get back upright. The whites of his eyes caught the midday light, highlighting the terror in his face as he scrambled backwards in a mad panic.
Lyra sat back in shock at his unabated terror. Leyline was all but paralyzed by her very presence, eventually giving up on trying to run from her and curling into as tight a ball as he could possibly muster, quaking in place helplessly. His ears were pinned flat to his skull, and his eyes were squeezed shut as though he expected to be pummeled mercilessly by the unicorn opposite him.
She cautiously stepped towards him. The soft earth beneath her absorbed the impact of Lyra's steps, muffling her approach. She reached out to the stallion, her hoof brushing against his huddled form. Leyline flinched, but he didn't move otherwise. The mare took a small breath and whispered, "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."
He stammered something unintelligible, his body shaking slightly at her touch.
"It's going to be alright, Leyline."
The stallion froze. He opened an eye cautiously, his gaze flicking to the mare standing next to him. "Wh-what... what say?"
Lyra knelt down next to him, brushing soothingly at his coarse black mane. "Leyline. It's your name, isn't it?"
Leyline hesitated, his eyes darting back and forth. "Name... yes. Leyline. Me." He focused on the mare as best as he could.
"Yeah, that's you." She smiled encouragingly at him. "My name is Lyra."
The stallion scrunched his nose. "Not remember."
Lyra shook her head. "No. We didn't know each other before." She rested her hoof on his shoulder gently. "I'm here to help you, Leyline.”
“Help?”
“Yeah, help. I know you’re a good pony. You deserve better than to be a statue for eternity.”
"Deserve." Leyline rolled the word around on his tongue, then made an awful face and drew unsteady hooves up to his face to cover it. "Deserve stone. Death."
"No, you don't deserve that! You protected us from the real monster.”
Leyline gasped and shirked away from the mare, shaking his head in shame. “Terrible things. Chaos. Terror.”
“It would have been worse if it was Eris.”
He gave a shudder, his eyes clear for the briefest moment when he looked again at Lyra’s fang and feather-mottled foreleg. “You know.”
The unicorn shrugged, suppressing the sudden chill running down her spine. “I do. But let’s not focus on that, okay? So, you remember what your name is now?”
He gave a happy bob of his head, one ear flopped to the side. “Leyline. Other’s didn’t know. Name not heard long time, forgot.” He patted her cheek in gratitude. “You remember. Help me. Thankful.”
Lyra gave him another smile. "Good! What else do you remember?"
Leyline gave a jerky nod, and screwed up his face in concentration. "Remember..." he made a sound of realization, stood up and began writing something out in the dirt. He made long, elegant strokes in the dirt, sigils and runes falling into place. The stallion looked completely in his element, his movements shaky yet sure while he concentrated on what he was doing. With a final stroke, he completed the writing and stepped back, a proud smile on his face. "Remember!" His eyelids fluttered, and he swayed drunkenly before collapsing, falling to the side and away from whatever he wrote.
Lyra blinked, and asked with trepidation, "Uh, Leyline? Are you okay?" She walked over to him, prodding him with her hoof. She sighed and looked down at the stallion, then at the opening in the hedge circle. Lyra quietly groaned as she remembered the extensive maze around them. “It would be really nice if Celestia could show up right about now.”
As if on cue, the slight tremor of a pony landing with considerable force alerted the mare to someone right behind her. She turned to see Celestia looking the situation over. “Are you well, Lyra?”
"Yes, I'm fine. And what’s more, the universe is actually on my side for a change…” she muttered under her breath. “Can you help me carry him to the castle?”
Celestia stepped over to the stallion, gently picking him up in her magic. “How did you catch him?”
“He didn’t need to be caught, Princess. He was hiding here the whole time.” Lyra gave the unconscious pony a sympathetic look. “I don’t think he’s all there, Princess. He can barely speak in fragments.”
The ruler examined him closer, scrutinizing him as she placed his limp body on her back. “Thank you for keeping him here while I was gone, Lyra. I’ll teleport him to the castle and take care of him, then I’ll come back for you, okay?”
Lyra nodded, swallowing nervously. “Okay.”
Celestia cast a glance at the ground where Leyline had scratched out runes in the soft earth, then quietly vanished in a yellow wash of light.
Why did you release him? Lyra flinched as Eris’s voice whispered through her psyche. Unlike before, though, her tone was subdued, even puzzled. He is a stallion out of his time. Leyline is little more than a broken husk of a pony, and you can’t possibly expect him to be of any use to you.
“Leyline deserves better than to be left a statue for the rest of eternity.”
I don't understand.
"I wouldn't expect you to." Lyra wandered over to the pedestal and sat in front of it again. Cracks spiderwebbed from areas where stone had flaked off in the vague crescent shape of hoofprints. She remembered Celestia briefly mentioning her anger at Discord for stealing away Luna, and how close Leyline's statue form had come to being shattered.
The abrasive touch of chaos grated on her nerves as it trickled from her body, leaking out as her focus on controlling it wavered. The errant energy coiled about the stone base and caused it to vanish in a burst of amber light, leaving an assortment of chains in the exact shape of the stone. The pile lost its cohesiveness and collapsed into a tangled mess. Four distinct shackles were positioned where the corners used to be, the metal hoops shattering like ice as soon as they touched the earth.
Lyra staggered slightly as the magic fought and tore at her body, surging to be free of her body. She steeled her will against the struggling energy and forced it back into herself, falling to her knees as the energy burned at her body with renewed vigor.
A flash of yellow light caught her attention, and she forced herself upright once more to face Celestia. The unicorn noticed the ruler moving to examine the runes Leyline had scratched in the earth.
"These are extremely old symbols, although I suppose that is to be expected given the nature of the one who drew them," Celestia noted to Lyra. "I'll save these for examining later."
Celestia gestured with her wing for Lyra to step back, which she quickly did. The princess's horn lit, and a glow of light washed over the runes like a magical copy machine. Ghostly copies of the lettering lifted off the earth and rolled up like a scroll. The ethereal scroll was quickly pulled through the air and disappeared into the aura surrounding Celestia’s horn, the light soon winking out. She reared her head back as the spell complete and shook her head a little as if to clear her mind.
“There. Now, let’s get you back to the castle.” Celestia knelt down. “Whenever you’re ready, you can climb on my back. We should avoid exposing you to more magic than what is necessary, in light of your condition, so I will fly you back to the castle.”
Lyra gave her an unsure look, tentatively moving to Celestia’s side and looking to her for confirmation.
“It’s okay. I don’t mind carrying you, my little pony.”
The smaller mare gave a nod and clambered up awkwardly, wrapping her forelegs around Princess Celestia’s neck and holding her tightly. With a powerful stroke of her wings, the alicorn lifted off the ground and turned to the castle. The center of the hedge maze fell away in the distance. Celestia’s mane drifted lazily in the air, seemingly unaffected by the wind currents while she flew at a leisurely pace towards the rapidly approaching castle.
Lyra sat at the small writing desk provided for her in the guest room she had been given for her stay in Canterlot. She wondered if she could go home, or if she was now a permanent “guest” at the Canterlot Castle, courtesy of her ascension to “living bottle of chaos.” She nodded with silent satisfaction at the phrase, wondering if there was any way she could work that into a song.
I suppose music isn’t exactly at the top of my list of priorities right now, she mused to herself. She sighed and dropped her head to the desk, the saddlebags hanging off one side toppling to the floor and spilling some of their contents across it. Lyra shook her head and grabbed at the bags with a hoof, setting them upright and beginning to collect the spilled material. She made a feeble reach for the spilled miscellany, confirming that most of it was indeed out of her reach while she sat on the chair.
Lyra heaved another sigh to lament this new minor inconvenience in her day. She ungracefully made her way off the chair, her body contorting somehow to make it feel like she literally poured herself onto the floor. She bowed her head to pick up a scarf, tossing it on the desk. She retrieved a couple books in a similar manner before alighting on the book Twilight loaned her: The Science of Magic, Volume II: Movement Spells.
Lyra squinted in thought, counting the days she had borrowed the book from the library. “Let’s see… Two days unconscious after fighting Discord, one day recovering before travelling to rescue Luna, three days on the way there and two on the way back, and another day makes today. Darn, this thing was due back at the library two days ago,” Lyra muttered to herself. “Well, might as well get some use out of it while I still have it.” She turned over to the chapter on summoning, glancing over the pages. It seemed like a lifetime ago that she had last been studying this stuff.
Lyra levitated the book in her magic, noticing her aura’s tint being somewhat off from what it was before. Just what I need — another reminder that everything has gone horribly wrong. She frowned and held the book at a good distance for her to see as she moved to the center of the room and cleared her mind. She turned the page to a paper crammed in the book, scrawled with Twilight’s writing. She read through the spell, mentally replacing the parts she improved with her own mental structures. The unicorn focused on the alarm clock on the end table, making an effort to avoid the turbulent energy
Unbidden, the ghostly form of a silhouetted biped form flashed before her eyes. She froze as the apparition commanded her attention. The memory of what started all this came back to her in startling detail, the smell of burning and charred flesh searing at her muzzle. A nonexistent rush of air laden with magic matted her coat with sweat. The echoes of a tortured scream rang in her ears, shattering Lyra’s focus and driving her to the floor.
The dull clamor of guards bursting into her room did nothing to snap Lyra out of her haze. She felt strong hooves collecting her off the floor and depositing her upon somepony’s back, holding her steady as she mindlessly clutched at her head. Lyra silently begged the memory to go away, sobbing into her misshapen foreleg.
Twilight hopped off the chariot the moment its wheels contacted the cobbled street in Ponyville, thanking the stallions who escorted her before making her way to Carousel Boutique. She trotted at a brisk pace down the street, nodding to ponies to acknowledge their greetings on her way.
Twilight arrived at the colorful building and opened the door. The ding-a-ling of the shop bell heralded her presence and within seconds, a scaly mass impacted with her leg. The blow forced an "oof" out of her and she looked down to see Spike clinging to her with a death grip.
"Twilight! You were gone for so long! I thought something happened to you," the dragon muffled into her leg. "You were only supposed to be gone a few days."
"I'm sorry, Spike," Twilight said apologetically. "Things just kept happening. We had Discord deigning to design a desertion, Lyra latched onto the labrynithine lusus naturae's legerdemain, and Princess Luna was purloined away to a precarious position and needed to be procured and protected posthaste."
Spike gave her a blank expression. "What?"
"Discord escaped, Lyra took his magic and we had to rescue the princess."
The dragon scratched his head in bewilderment. "Oh, then why didn't you just say so?"
"I did, actually— oh, forget about it. Did you give Rarity that letter I sent to you?" Twilight asked, lifting her assistant onto her back.
"He most certainly did," floated a voice from the back of the shop. Rarity trotted over to Twilight and offered a hug to the purple mare as well. "However, I must admit that I may not be the best option as a seamstress in this instance. Illusion magics are much more my forte, as opposed to the warding you want to do."
"That's alright, Rarity," Twilight said, undoing the flap on her saddlebags and retrieving a book. "I have an idea to work around that. Do you at least know the basics of spellcasting with another pony?"
Rarity shook her head. "I'm sorry, my dear. I'm afraid that I only studied branches of magic that directly pertained to my line of work. After all, the fashion business does not allow much spare time for such things."
Twilight hid her mild displeasure at the reply, retrieving another book. "Well, I guess I'm going to have to give you a crash course on the essentials of performing magic in groups. Spike, could you find me a chalkboard?"
"You got it, Twilight!" Spike said, glad to be restored as number one assistant.
Rarity managed to turn a shade whiter at the mention of Twilight giving her a crash course in anything. "Wait, Twilight, are you sure this is the best course of action? Surely there is someone else that is better suited to helping you with this?"
"Nonsense, Rarity. I couldn't possibly consider anyone else for this, especially since you are the best pony I know of when it comes to fabrics." Twilight gave the most winning smile she could muster.
Rarity preened at the compliment. "Oh, alright, if you insist. We wouldn't want to leave such delicate work to a hack, would we?"
"No, of course not. Spike, do you have that chalkboard?"
"Coming, Twilight!" Spike called, rolling the item across the floor and flipping the board so Rarity's dress designs would remain untouched. Twilight snatched a piece of chalk from the board's tray and started sketching a rough series of drawings, complete with stick ponies labeled A and B.
"Okay, what we want to do is cast an enchantment on an object, item 1. Normally, when casting any type of magic with multiple ponies, there is one group who supplies the energy and the other provides the spell and direction." Twilight drew a line from one pony to the other, and a second line from the other pony to a box on the chart.
"Since you don't know the spell, though, that means I will provide the energy and the spell, and you will be directing both. The problem is you can't directly interact with the spell, since it isn't your construct." Twilight crossed out the first chart and drew another of two ponies next to each other. "To combat that, we need to use a focus that you can manipulate, like a crystal. You can interact with the spell while it is within the crystal, applying it to the object."
Rarity slowly nodded, looking at the chart where stick-Twilight and stick-Rarity were both shooting lines at a diamond shape that shot a third line at the object. "Would it not be easier to just let you enchant the completed article of clothing, rather than require me to help?"
Twilight shook her head. "Due to Lyra's unique problem, we need an enchantment that is as resilient, powerful and long-lasting as we can possibly muster. If we interweave several dampening and warding enchantments through every individual piece of the fabric, it should help restabilize her condition."
Rarity held up a hoof to pause Twilight's explanation. "Just a moment, dear. Could you explain how Lyra fits into this? I heard you mention her earlier when I entered the room, but I think you need to go into a bit more detail."
The purple mare paused, stress finding its way to her expression. "Well, Lyra tried to summon something that doesn't exist anymore, using a spell that wasn't designed for it. We think that the spell found a target in another reality as a substitute."
Rarity tilted her head, looking rather puzzled. "I thought that sort of thing was easy to perform, dear. I always heard that it is easier to summon something from the same location that is on another plane of existence than something far away in this one."
Twilight shook her head. "It's complicated, but she didn't summon it from another plane. She took a living creature from another reality altogether, a creature that is resistant to magic."
The white unicorn nodded confusedly. "You know, Twilight, I have a feeling that the rest of the answer is just as unsatisfying to me as this is so far. I do believe that, for now, I shall be content with the knowledge that our friend has taken Discord's magic for herself, however temporary it may be. I suppose this is where my skills are needed?"
Twilight nodded, a mixture of disappointment and relief washing over her face. "Yes. We need it to be fabric based, because of the number of spells needed to work together. Can you help?"
Rarity pursed her lips, tapping her chin thoughtfully as she puzzled over the problem. "It will be difficult to make a complex piece of clothing, given that I will have to be working with a spell that isn't mine. I suppose it also has to be suitable for daily use, and tough enough to deal with wear and tear."
The white mare flipped the chalkboard over, drawing a rough outline of a pony and spinning the chalk in the air as she talked aloud. "However, it needs to be large enough to accommodate the number of enchantments we shall be placing on the cloth, so a mere vest or belt will not do. In fact, we may just have to go with a larger article of clothing." She furrowed her brow. "It is a shame, really, that we have to cover Lyra like this. She is a very pleasant pony to look at, and she always has such an optimistic, cheery smile."
Twilight coughed and scuffed her hoof across the floor. "Yeah, about that... she might have also picked up some of Discord's physical traits as well."
Rarity gasped and whipped her focus back towards her friend, aghast at the thought. "Surely you jest."
"Sadly, no. Her legs are starting to look less equine, and she has a fang almost identical to his."
Rarity dramatized a faint, pressing her wrist joint to her forehead. "Oh, this is simply dreadful! It will be nearly impossible to coordinate colors with Discord's brutish assortment of body parts!" She noticed Twilight's less than amused expression, offering an embarrassed titter. "Of course, Lyra is probably feeling very awkward, the poor dear. Normally, I design an outfit to accentuate my client's body, but she might feel the need to keep her, ahem, less than symmetrical qualities to herself, no?" With a resigned sigh, she sketched out a cloak over the figure, complete with a hood. "Still, there must be some way to spruce up this design a little."
"I'm sure she won't mind if you just give her a plain cloak, Rarity," Twilight said.
"Nonsense. I refuse to give any less than my best— oh, idea!" Rarity turned abruptly from the chalkboard, moving rapidly from the showroom towards her inspiration room. "Are you coming, Twilight?"
"Wait, what are we going to do?"
"Are you, by any chance, familiar with looms?"
Leyline stroked his chin thoughtfully. Solaris might be checking in at any moment, hmm, have to have something ready. Where are Leyline's notes? Those pesky mages down the hall must be playing a prank on him again! Oh, well. He can always just rewrite them! It couldn't have been more than three hundred pages' worth, could it? See? The writing desk has paper, ink and quills at the ready, and Leyline is a fast writer. He'll have that dissertation ready in no time!
Leyline rolled out of the bed that was in his office and clumsily pawed the little tube tipped in a needle from his foreleg. He didn't remember the bed being in his office before, or the entire room being painted white, but these didn't bother him in the slighest. After all, he had work to do, and Dulcet would be worried if—
Leyline dropped to the floor, sobbing into the cold tile. No, Dulcet wouldn't be waiting. She would never be waiting for him now. She was dead, and he murdered her. He is a terrible pony who should be in the deepest, darkest dungeon that can be found. Leyline is—
Leyline. He knew his name. Why didn't he know it before? It's such a nice name, too, if strange for an earth pony. The green unicorn reminded him. Such a nice pony, to help him like that, even though she had that odd fang—
Eris! Chaos spirit is still around somewhere, pretending to be a pony. How did she escape? He bound her to himself... how long ago, though? He saw so many seasons pass by him. Enough for a lifetime, maybe? Maybe two? How did he become stone, though? He'll have to write a note to himself to look into—
Notes, that's right, he was writing notes! Better get back to it, then. Leyline picked up the quill and started writing again, the ink not flowing easily for some reason. Why isn't it working right? Hurry, hurry, Leyline has a lot of catching up to do. He racked is brain, feeling like he was forgetting something big. Come on, have to get this. Leyline has to remember.
Remember! He remembers his name is Leyline, and that Eris isn't inside his brain anymore. He remembers so much, and it is so exciting! He will have to tell Dulcet about it...
No. She is gone. She is gone, and it's all his fault. Leyline slammed a hoof into the floor, only succeeding in sending a sharp pain shooting up his leg and sending him to the ground, sobbing softly once more. The pain was simply too much for him to bear.
Bear, huh, what a funny sounding word, and it rhymes with lots of things. Scare, swear, share, rare, fare, compare. Shall I compare thee to a midsummer night's eve? That which we call red, by any other name, would smell just as sugar. No, that isn't right, is it?
Someone is coming in, with a horn and wings! It must be Prince Solaris, coming to check on him! Strange, he is supposed to have a yellow coat, not white. Maybe he felt the need to change things up a little? Leyline stood up quickly, offering the first pages of his notes to the ruler. "Hello, Prince Solaris! I've been making excellent progress on my dissertation!"
Celestia's calm expression held firm, even as she beheld the sight before her. The brown stallion's face had the telltale marks of a pony writing using his mouth, ink splotches around his jaw. Discord had somehow scrounged up a quill and paper from somewhere in the recovery room and put them to use. It was clear, however, that he had forgotten about the paper at some point and had continued writing on the floor, penned in a script she hadn't seen since before Luna was banished. Before she could ask him how he was feeling, the stallion quickly stood, offering her the pages which had been written upon.
"Prince Solaris! Dissertation!"
Celestia's expression faltered slightly, her magic accidentally crinkling the pages a little. The pony reacted as if he had been physically struck, cringing at the rumpling of his papers. "Oh, I'm sorry. It was an accident." She smoothed the sheets as best as she could, drawing a smile to his face.
"Look and see. Make good progress, prince."
Celestia kept her reaction at being referred to as her predecessor at a minimum this time, merely nodding and looking over the papers. The princess dusted off her knowledge of the older writing style, attempting to decipher it on the fly. "Yes, good work." She peered closely at the neatly written paragraphs. "Very good work, actually."
"Thanks." Discord beamed proudly at the compliment. "Rest done soon. Will make Solaris proud."
She returned the papers, pursing her lips. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not Solaris. I'm Princess Celestia."
Discord cocked his head at her, ears flopped unevenly in a foalish manner. A giggle escaped his lips, and he shook his head amusedly. "Silly. Celestia is pegasus. Leyline studied two years behind her at Nocturne's unicorn school. You are alicorn, and sunny, so Solaris!"
"I see. Interesting deduction." Celestia looked the stallion over once more, mentally erasing the wings and crooked legs from Discord's body, and imagining him with a single horn. The princess knew it was absurd for a spirit of Chaos to have a cutie mark, but she tried to imagine him with one anyway.
"What matter, Solaris?"
"Why are you using your mouth to write? Is your horn not working?"
The brown pony looked up at her with a spark of mild irritation hidden behind his genial expression. "You know Leyline is earth pony. Can't use horn that not there."
The ruler gave him a kind smile, hoping to settle both the stallion and herself. "Of course, of course. I'm sorry I offended you. My mind was elsewhere."
Leyline seemingly mulled her excuse over for a second or two before nodding. "It okay. Leyline understand Solaris busy."
She watched the stallion as he knelt down on the floor again, using his pilfered quill to resume writing. "If you don't mind, Leyline, I will take my leave," she said, moving back towards the door to the hallway.
"Be my guest!" The faux alicorn gave her a big smile, waving at her as she left the room before diligently returning to his writing. She gave a regal nod to him, quietly closing and locking the door behind her.
Celestia let her face slip into its pleasant neutral mask, taking her time walking back towards the library. She removed the unicorn horn from her reckoning of what Leyline used to look like, wondering how he could have possibly attended Nocturne's School for Gifted Unicorns. The only reason she was even able to attend was because Solaris was her mentor, and he had all but forced his protegee to attend. The archives should have some answers, hopefully. Celestia had actually gotten quite a bit of useful information from visiting Discord (or Leyline, as he apparently called himself now), which would prove useful her endeavor. Luna might even remember who this "Leyline" was. She would have to ask her sister later, though. Right now, she had to hurry and get as much research done as she could before having to return to her normal princess duties.