//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Deal with the Devil // by RaylanKrios //------------------------------// Scootaloo sat all by herself in the cave. Maybe Sweetie Belle can use her magic to get through Twilight's shielding. The same Sweetie Belle who can barely levitate a broom? Fine, well maybe I can crack Rarity’s safe. You don’t even know that the Element is in there. Besides, what do you know about safe cracking? Despite the hours mentally reviewing her predicament over and over again, every time she arrived at the same inescapable conclusion: Your only chance is to sneak into the cockatrice cave. That was the horrible unyielding truth; she simply lacked the skills necessary to attempt to steal one of the other Elements. It was getting late and Scootaloo realized that her parents would be worried if she didn't get home soon. She had already missed her Crusaders meeting and if she didn't turn up soon, ponies would start to worry. However before she could go home she needed to make a quick stop at the library. After zipping through town as fast as she could on her ever present scooter, Scootaloo found herself talking to a somewhat perplexed Twilight. “Hi Twilight, I know the library is closed but umm I have a report on the Everfree Forest due Monday and with all the flying I kinda forgot. I was hoping I could borrow a book on animals or something.” “Scootaloo you really shouldn't leave your homework for the last minute,” Twilight chided the orange filly. “I know Twilight but can I please borrow a book? It’ll be the last time I promise.” “Somehow I doubt that, but as it happens I know just the book,” Twilight's horned flared up as she levitated a copy of A Naturalist Guide to the Everfree Forest from its designated place on the bookshelf. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou, this is perfect!” “You’re welcome; just remember to bring it back." “I will Twilight, you’re the best.” Scootaloo scurried away from the library, eager to dig into her new ally in her quest to keep her wings. Scootaloo burst through the door of her house only be greeted by the disapproving faces of her parents. After a stern scolding about staying out too late Scootaloo managed to escape to her room without further punishment, the book in safely in her possession. She sat down on her bed and began to read, desperate for a clue about how to get into a cockatrice cave without being turned to stone. Not much is known about the cockatrice; nocturnal by nature their stone gaze discourages researchers from getting too close. Cockatrices subsist mainly on a diet of mice and seeds, however they have been known to attack larger animals if food is scarce. They are most often found in caves or in rare cases thick brush as they prefer the dark environments. The cockatrice is quite territorial and will use its stone gaze on creatures unfortunate enough to wander too close to its dwelling. The only creature that seems to be able to enter the cockatrice dwelling unmolested appears to be the rare albino gila monster. Researchers have postulated that this is due to their naturally shiny coat of scales which may offer some protection against the ossifying stare of the cockatrice. Reading the passage Scootaloo began to get an idea. It wasn’t a particular good idea and it was by no means guaranteed to work, however it was better than the nothing she had before. The next morning she woke up early and went to Ponyville’s hardware store where she purchased a small vanity mirror that she tucked into her backpack explaining that the Cutie Mark Crusaders wanted a mirror for their clubhouse. Careful to avoid going near Fluttershy’s cottage, Scootaloo took the long way to the path that led to Everfree Forest. Despite her choice of routes, she found herself at the edge of the Everfree forest faster than she would have liked. You can still back out now her inner voice told her. Sometimes the only way out is through countered the part of her that refused to give up her wings. She gritted her teeth as she remembered that Rainbow Dash had once told her that particular maxim. Rainbow Dash wouldn't be doing this. Well I guess I’m not Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo shook her head and stepped into the Everfree Forest. As she walked along the path that ran through the forest she tried to remember exactly where she had first encountered the cockatrice. I think it was past that tree, or was it that one? Was that boulder there before? Scootaloo stopped and took a long look at her surroundings. Unlike the rest of Ponyville which was characterized by a neat and orderly design for all things, the Everfree Forest was a monument to the wildness inherent in nature. Vines and mosses grew unabated around large thick canopies. Small birds and lizards skittered about, constantly mindful of the predators that lurked in the shadows. There was a reason that very few ponies dared to go off the path and it had nothing to do with getting lost. Scootaloo took a deep breath and shut her eyes. Ok Apple Bloom called me a chicken and I went off in that direction, yeah that rock formation looks familiar. I turned left and the cockatrice was in that bush? Scootaloo walked apprehensively toward the bush, it rustled as she approached causing her to reflexively jump back, a second later a rabbit darted out from under the brush and ran away. It’s just a rabbit, cockatrices are asleep during the middle of the day she reminded herself. Scootaloo took several deep breaths as she parted the bush. Much to her delight she saw a cave a few yards away. Slowly she approached the cave. Upon reaching the entrance Scootaloo took out her mirror and carefully peered inside. Inside was cockatrice sleeping soundly, and behind the slumbering beast glittered Fluttershy’s pink butterfly shaped Element. For the first time in her life Scootaloo was grateful that she was comparatively small, as it allowed her to mostly hide behind her mirror. Keeping her back to the cave wall and being careful to keep the mirror in-between her and the sleeping cockatrice she began inching her way toward the pink gemstone. Despite her best efforts at staying silent the cockatrice began to stir. Scootaloo began to sing softly, “Hush now quiet now it’s time lay your sleepy head." Her singing unfortunately had the opposite effect of her intentions and the cockatrice began to stir further. Has that stupid lullaby ever worked? When the cockatrice opened its eyes and saw that it was not alone it began to screech wildly. Stay calm; if you keep looking at the ground he can’t use his stare. The cockatrice began to flail and peck at the mirror but Scootaloo kept her shield up as she continued to inch toward the gem. Just a little bit farther. As she inched closer to the Element the cockatrice began to attack even more aggressively, but as long as Scootaloo kept the mirror up the cockatrice was powerless to use it's stone gaze. Finally she got close enough to grab the stone. As soon as her hoof grasped the stone she used her newfound wings to fly out of the cave, her eyes squeezed shut until she was sure that the cockatrice was long behind her. Breathing heavily she looked down at the stone in her hoof; she also caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror. She knew that it was the same reflection she saw everyday but something felt wrong, it was almost as though her reflection was mocking her. This is who you are now, the sort of pegasus who betrays her friends for her own gain. In a fit of rage she slammed the mirror on the ground. It shattered into pieces, but unfortunately the fragmentation did nothing to alleviate the fact that she hated the reflection staring back at her. Angry at the world, she tucked the Element in her backpack and flew toward Discord’s cave. “Hey I got your stupid Element. Happy now?” Discord emerged from wherever Discord emerged from and looked approvingly at the stone. “Ah the Element of Kindess! Not my first choice, are you sure you couldn't get the Element of Magic? That Twilight Sparkle always so smug-” Scootaloo interrupted Discord before he could finish his Twilight fueled rant. “I gave you what you wanted. Are we done here?” “Ahh not quite, if you remember our deal I still need you to do one more thing. I can’t touch the Element as long as it’s linked to Fluttershy. So if you wouldn’t mind...” “I-I don’t know how to use it.” stammered Scootaloo. “It’s really quite simple, all you have to do it put it on and hit me with your best shot. If that simpleton Pinkie Pie can figure it out surely it can't be that difficult.” Discord snapped his talons and two boxing gloves materialized on his claws. “C’mon first one’s free” the draconequus said as he jutted his chin out. Scootaloo slowly slipped the butterfly shaped necklace around her neck. She felt the buzz of the Element’s power beckoning. As she closed her eyes she began to focus all her rage into the vibrating rock around her neck. Stupid defective wings, stupid Discord with his stupid magic, stupid Fluttershy not hiding her stupid Element better, stupid cockatrice. Why can’t things ever be fair! The Element began to glow as Scootaloo trembled. Suddenly a beam of light flew from the stone and hit Discord squarely in the chest, the Draconequus flew backwards and slumped against the cave wall with a resounding thud. Scootaloo looked down and noticed that the once pink butterfly was now an orange wing, and where before Scootaloo could feel a kind of gentle warmth emanating from the stone in its place was a decidedly colder energy. Discord slowly got up and shook his head. “Wow, kid! That was quite a wallop; let’s see if it did the trick”. The draconequus gingerly walked over to Scootaloo and took the necklace from around her neck. Discord held the now wing shaped Element under his nose and inhaled deeply “mmm anger, fear, aggression-oh wait that’s something else.” The draconequus flicked his forked tongue out over the stone. “Ahh yes some self loathing, a little resentment, suffice it to say I know Fluttershy and you my dear are no Fluttershy." Discord stared intently at the rock held between his talons, his rage reflected back at him through the glossy surface. Scootaloo instinctively shielded her eyes as the stone began to glow with a harsh glare. Discord furrowed his brow and kept his gaze locked as the stone grew brighter. Soon the stone glowed with such intensity that Scootaloo was forced to turn away completely. A sharp crack pierced the air as light disappeared and the now dull stone fell to the ground. As the stone fell Discord laughed a cackle so disturbing that Scootaloo kept her eyes shut and shivered. When she finally dared to open them she saw Discord smiling as he rolled the stone, which again looked like a pink butterfly, back and forth between his fingers. He noticed the orange filly staring at him and smiled. “Beautiful isn’t it, looks just like the original but well...it’s not. Oh what fun I’m going to have.” he said with poisonous glee dripping from his voice. Scootaloo shivered again as she saw Discords evil grin; all she could manage to croak out was a feeble “Now are we done?” “Absolutely it’s been a pleasure doing business with you. Here.” Discord tossed Scootaloo the newly defunct Element. “You just put this back where you found it and nopony has to know you were involved.” Scootaloo caught the Element and stared at it. It felt dull and lifeless, as though it really was just another rock. The trip back to the cockatrice cave was much less eventful than the first, instead of entering the cave Scootaloo merely threw the not Element into the cave and ran before the cockatrice woke up from the noise. Everything seemed normal for the next few weeks and for a few brief moments Scootaloo even managed to forget her faustian bargain with Discord. She went on adventures with her friends, practiced flying with Rainbow Dash, and generally lived the life of a normal little pegasus. The illusion that everything was normal was shattered one day while she was helping Apple Bloom harvest the current apple crop and Applejack came sprinting through the orchard carrying a shovel. “Girls, I need ya to find Big Mac and git to the storm cellar…or maybe the attic, consarnit! Just git somewhere safe now!” “What’s going on sis?” “Discord’s back and he’s fixin for a showdown, so I need ya to git somewhere safe, though when Discord’s around I’m not rightly sure where that is.” Scootaloo’s heart leapt up into her throat. They don’t know. “Wait let me go with you, I can help-” “Now’s not the time to be a hero sug, you ain’t ready for this kind of action.” “But-” “I ain’t arguing with you!” Scootaloo followed Applejack out past the orchards, through the town square and onto the far edge of Ponyville. Fortunately for her the bearer of Honesty was too preoccupied with the current crisis to notice the orange filly flying behind her. When she arrived at the border of Ponyville she saw a scene reminiscent of a bad Salvador Dali sketch. Trees floated in the air, their roots lashing out any of the newly winged creatures that drifted too close. The sky had turned blood red and the ground leading up to the edge of Ponyville was covered in bones.True to his word Discord had stopped his chaos just at the border of Ponyville, creating a distinct line separating order from anarchy. Scootaloo stayed inside the haven of the borders of Ponyville and hid behind a tree stump. Applejack ran up and joined her friends who were standing in a semi-circle just behind Twilight on the Ponyville side of the border. “You know how this ends Discord, I’m giving you one last chance, turn everything back the way it was or we use our Elements.” Twilight said. “My dear Twilight, are you absolutely sure you know how this particular story ends?” “Oh I’m sure. Girls let him have it!” Twilight shut her eyes as her horn began to glow. The six Elements of Harmony began to vibrate as Twilight readied the spell that would turn Discord into stone, her eyes began to glow a translucent white as her friends gathered around her. A rainbow began to form from the six Elements and it began it’s arch toward Discord. The draconequus stood there indifferent to the efforts of the six ponies until the rainbow hit him and Discord began to turn to stone. “Keep going girls its working,” Twilight shouted over the hum of the Elements. Suddenly the butterfly shaped Element around Fluttershy’s neck cracked and broke into pieces. Fluttershy let out a whimper as the force of the blast threw her backwards. Discord burst out laughing as he quickly reverted to his non-stone state. “Oh that was fun, you thought your precious spell was working you should have seen the looks on your faces when you realized it wasn’t. Priceless!” “What did you do to Fluttershy’s Element?!” Twilight said as much in shock as in anger. “Let’s just say I changed the calculus of your little situation. Your spell only works if you have all six Elements, without the Element of Kindness the whole thing falls apart. Laughter without kindness is ridicule, magic without kindness is just power, loyalty becomes obligation, honesty becomes bluntness and generosity without kindness becomes martyrdom." Discord laughed with unrestrained glee. “Don’t you get it yet? I win! I win I win I win! I can do whatever I want and there’s nothing you can do about it because you don’t have kindness." Twilight’s ears folded back as she readied a burst of magical energy to fire at Discord. Pinkie Pie had her party cannon loaded with the sharpest, least colorful confetti, she had and it was pointed squarely at Discords chest. Rarity had several nearby gems hovering, waiting for her to hurl them, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked ready to charge head first at their opponent. But before the ponies could commence their assault, Fluttershy flew in front of them. “Ummm excuse me Discord?” Fluttershy flew up so she was eye level with the gloating draconequus. "Fluttershy what are you doing? Get back here!" said Rainbow Dash. “Yes, what are you doing? You’re not going to give me that dreadful stare again are you? We've already established that doesn't work on me” the draconequus said as he regarded Fluttershy with a curious look. Fluttershy ignored her friends warnings and continued to speak. “Oh I know, but I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute, if you don’t mind that is.” Fluttershy looked at Discord with the sort of earnest meekness that could thaw a windigo. For a moment a flicker of regret flew across Discord’s face. “Fluttershy..I..I did enjoy our friendship. But let’s be honest, it never would have worked we’re just too different,” the draconequus said with no small amount of regret in his voice. “I still think we could give it another chance but we can talk about that later. What I wanted to ask you was why are you doing this?” “Why? Because I’m the Lord of Chaos, I’m about to usher in 1000 years of unthinkable bedlam. It’s kinda my thing.” “Uh huh, but didn’t you do that already? It just seems like it’s kind of ….boring.” “Boring? When I’m done the word boring will only be uttered in dark corners by frightened ponies yearning for relief from my insanity. Ponies will smell colors, giant squirrels will fly in the oceans, and rainbows will start fires!” “Uh huh, and it will rain chocolate milk and apples will grow wings. I don’t mean to be a bother but we’ve seen that before.” Fluttershy forced herself to yawn. “Have you seen this?” Discord snapped his talons and the entire field began to shimmer, the sky and the ground began to bleed into each other as shadows flew everywhere without regard for the laws of physics. Rarity recoiled in horror at the new hellish landscape and even Pinkie Pie seemed rattled by her new surroundings. “Yes it’s very disorienting but I’m sorry I just don’t see how it’s different than the last time you turned everything into a bad abstract painting. You still haven’t answered my question, why are you doing this?” “Because the world is chaos, it’s not this happy little illusion you all suffer! It’s a dark scary violent place that will destroy you without a second thought and it’s about time you ponies realized that!” "Fluttershy get out of the way!" yelled Twilight. Fluttershy shook her head at Twilight. “I’m pretty sure I don’t need a reminder of how scary the world can be, but I'm sorry I just don’t see what’s so scary about this,” Fluttershy waved her hooves at her surroundings. “I think the scarier things are the ones you don’t see coming.” "Ok sug, you've provoked the angry god long enough maybe you want to get back down here," offered Applejack. Fluttershy shook her head again and continued. "You keep saying you're this big bad lord of chaos, but if there is one thing that I can count on it's that Discord wants to rule Equestria, that's not very erratic." Rarity sent a emerald whizzing by Fluttershy's head, "Fluttershy darling, now is hardly the most appropriate time for this conversation." “But…but…oh dear Celestia you’re right, I’ve become…predictable! Fluttershy you magnificent little pegasus! How can I ever thank you for opening my eyes?” Discord wrapped the demure pegasus into a bone crushing hug as the other five ponies looked on in awe. Even Scootaloo let out an audible gasp from her hiding spot, but it was completely lost in the moment. Fluttershy patted the draconequus on the back. “You’re welcome, now maybe you could clean up your mess?” Discord snapped his talons and the world went back to normal. “Done and done. But surely there must be something else I can do to show my gratitude? How bout a nice talking fern for your garden?” “Oh I don't really need one of those. You could tell me how you managed to break my Element though. I thought Celestia’s magic was protecting it” “Ah but I made a promise, you see I’m being unpredictable already. The old me would have happily broken that promise, but you never know what to expect with Discord Lord of Chaos,” Discord said as he waved his arms in the air with a flourish reminiscent of a bad las pegasus showmare. Fluttershy giggled as much out of a sense of relief then Discord’s joke. “I suppose not. Do you think maybe you could fix my Element? It means a lot to me.” “Would that I could my dear, alas my magic is far more suited to destruction rather than construction. But fear not perhaps Celestia and Luna know how to restore your precious Element.” “That’s a good idea, thank you Discord.” “You’re most welcome my dear, if that is all? I’m terribly sorry to have inconvenienced your day. Ha you weren’t expecting an apology were you? I believe I’ll go help some salmon, poor little fishes work so hard to swim upstream. Never thought I’d say that did you? And so I bid you adieu,” Discord snapped his talons and disappeared again. As soon as he vanished the five ponies ran over to Fluttershy. “’‘Shy…that...was amazing! How’d you know you could talk Discord down?” Rainbow Dash said as she wrapped a wing around the yellow pegasus. “Yeah sug, when your necklace cracked I thought we were done for worse than a hen in a foxhouse,” Applejack said as she trotted over to join the two pegasi. “It was no big deal. I keep telling you girls Discords not all that bad; he’s just misunderstood. I just tried to understand him a little better.” “I’d still like to know how he managed to break your Element,” Twilight mused out loud. “I’d like to know that score myownself sugarcube, if Celestia’s magic ain’t protecting them anymore we got ourselves a mighty big problem.” “Girls my pinke sense is going off and itt-s a-a d-d-doooozie”. The effervescent pink pony said as she started seizing violently. Pinkie‘s entire body seized up and she let out a frightening urk as her muscles locked up and she collapsed to the ground like a rag doll. Rarity rushed over to the fallen pink pony, “My goodness dear are you alright? Did it have something to do with how Discord was able to break Fluttershy’s Element?” Pinkie slowly sat up, still dazed from her seizure. “I’m not sure, but that wasn’t the good kind of doozie it was more like a sad one. I don’t think I’ve ever felt a doozie like that before” “Well that’s certainly disconcerting; I shudder to wonder at what sort of revelation could cause that kind of a reaction,” said Rarity. Scootaloo stayed hidden behind her stump and breathed a sigh of relief. Everything worked out, Discord was defeated, she got to keep her wings and nopony knew that she had anything to do with anything. She could sneak back home and get off scott free. But just as she turned to slip away she caught a glimpse of the six Element Bearers. Fluttershy was still obviously shaken up, and Twilight was concerned for both her friend and the implication of the fact that Discord was able to overcome the Elements magic. Her idol Rainbow Dash seemed rattled by the whole ideal, and Rarity and Applejack both wore expressions of relief on their faces. Scootaloo thought back to how she felt when she first stole the Element of Kindess, how she hated that reflection she saw in the mirror. She realized that if she left now she would see that same awful reflection in every mirror for the rest of her life. This is who you are now, the sort of pegasus who betrays her friends for her own gain. Scootaloo knew what she had to do. She stepped out from behind her tree stump “I gave it to him”.