//------------------------------//
// Chapter Fifteen: Unresolved Complications 
// Story: An Investigation Into Chaos 
// by Forgoten Null 
//------------------------------//

As drained as she was, Twilight immediately noticed the subtle shift in the air around her.

She quickly looked over towards Celestia and saw a pure white flame hanging in the air besides the barrier. Almost immediately one of the Timberwolves leapt at her, pulling her head back into the fight. With a thought she dissipated it violently before moving onto the next one.

She tried to focus on working her way through the melee, desperately trying to reach Celestia, but she couldn’t help but watch the white flame as it spread through the air in her peripheral vision. She could see that, whatever it was, was expanding as it coiled up around the air above Celestia’s barrier. Twilight hoped that Celestia had found some way to end this.

She stole a quick glance at Celestia, only to see the wicked crack that had appeared on the barrier surrounding her. Twilight winced; she knew it wouldn’t be long before the barrier failed and the vines overwhelmed her. Still, Celestia was still fighting; her horn was streaming a brilliant light from inside the barrier.

Twilight threw herself to the ground only just as one of the Timberwolves launched itself at her. It sailed over her head, exploding in midair with as it collided with a concentrated burst of her magic.

Celestia hadn’t given up, so she wouldn’t either.

The Timberwolves suddenly seemed to lose interest in her, turning their attention towards Celestia. Twilight took advantage of the momentary lull in the combat to pick herself up, turning to see what had gotten their attention. The coils of white flame were descending onto the barrier, mixing with Celestia’s flames, consuming them, and forming a solid wall of white fire. Meanwhile the vines continued smashing into the barrier, only to be consumed by the fire instantly. The fire shot down the vines immediately, streaking down into the forest faster than her eyes could track. She could see them writhing and twisting with what she assumed was a silent agony.

Despite herself, Twilight smiled. Celestia had come through in the end, just as she always had.

She watched silently as the throng of Timberwolves stalked slowly towards the inferno before they charged it. The second they made contact with the wall of flame they were utterly consumed by it, burning up nearly instantly with a snapping of timbres. An entire wave threw themselves into the flames before the rest of the pack seemed to lose their nerve, turning tail and sprinting back towards the forest. Still, some of them ended up tripping and getting caught up in the still burning vines, they were consumed by the fire just as quickly as the ones who threw themselves headlong into the blaze.

Twilight shifted on the spot uncomfortably. She knew that the Timberwolves weren’t conscious entities, but it was still a hard scene for her to watch. She glanced over to the side to see Luna staring at the inferno with the same deer caught by a witch light look she realized she must have been giving it. Luna took a step backwards. It was at that point that Twilight realized the flames weren’t just spreading along the vines, but that the whole wall of fire was expanding outward.

She looked back at the fire in front of her, noticing that the fire was spreading out to meet her. At first she took a step back, unnerved by the sight of a wall of fire encroaching on her, but then she remembered that this was Celestia’s fire. She had seen Celestia conjure flames before; she knew from experience that they would only burn something Celestia wanted to burn. In a few seconds the fire would push right on past her. It wasn’t dangerous in the slightest, at least not to her.

She looked back over at Luna. She was about to shout over to her, telling her not to worry, when the wall lurched forward suddenly, consuming Luna in the wall of flames. Luna’s scream, phantasmal as it was, pierced straight into Twilight’s soul.

Something was very wrong.

Twilight looked back down to see the fire lapping at her hoof. To her surprise it burned on contact. She quickly pulled it away, but the phantom pain in her hoof didn’t stop as the fire clung on to it and slowly crept up the wall of her hoof.

Her eyes widened and her mind started racing. She thought maybe Celestia had lost control of her flames, but she quickly discarded that as impossible; Celestia’s fire was an intrinsic part of her. No, these flames weren’t Celestia’s, they were something other.

Something wild...

Suddenly the wall of fire seemed a lot less friendly. Twilight started backpedaling just at the fire lunged at her, eating away at the ground in front of her. For a moment it seemed like she might get away, she turned around to press into a full spring but as she turned she tripped on a vine. Looking back up behind her, she saw the inferno looming over her. Before she could even get up she had been completely submerged in a sea of fire.

Half instinctually, she pulled her mind back to her body back in The Castle.





Twilight bolted upright the moment she felt herself slip into her body. She looked around and saw that the three stallions surrounding her were shouting and scrambling around the room frantically.

All she could hear was the steady crackling of fire.

She looked down and realized that the same white flames from earlier were covering her entire body now. It struck her as strange, the flames were burning her before, but now as the flames lapped against her she didn’t feel any pain or discomfort. In fact, she felt the strangest feeling of relief. It was like some terrible burden she had been caring with her had suddenly been lifted. It was a subtle change, but she could definitely feel it.

Curiosity got the better of her and she lifted one of her hooves up to inspect the flames. To her surprise it seemed like the fire was already starting to fade away. She was a little sad to see it go, but when it finally vanished it left her with a profound sense of warmth.

As the fire died away completely, the world around her shifted back into focus. Iron Clad was the first one to speak.

“Princess Twilight, are you alright?!?

“Are you injured, Princess? Do you need me to go find a medic?”

“Why in Equestria were you on Fire!?! What in Tartarus happened to you?!?”

Twilight blinked a few times, trying to come up with an adequate response to that. As she tried to process what actually did just happen, the two guards continued to ask after her health while Dual proceeded to freak out. Having three grown stallions yammering at her certainly wasn’t helping her thought process.

“Boys,” Twilight said softly, trying to get them to calm down. She was ignored. Rolling her eyes, she shouted, “BOYS!” The two guards fell silent immediately, Stratosphere stood at attention.

“You were on Fire!”

“DUAL!”

Dual stopped his incessant babbling. “Um, Ok. Did you want something, Twilight?” He asked, genuinely concerned.

Twilight groaned. “Yes, would you kindly shut up for just one second so I can talk?” Dual seemed a bit taken aback by that, but he nodded politely and complied with her request.

“Thank you very much.” Twilight said genuinely. “First off, as you can clearly see, I am fine.” Dual looked like he was about to start up again, but Twilight held up a hoof, promptly cutting him off. “Thank you for your concerned, but I’m actually feeling pretty good right now.” She looked back down, giving herself another once over just to make sure she was actually fine. “At least I think I am, anyway…”

Iron Clad spoke up first. “You mind explaining what exactly happened back there, Princess? You were just a little bit on-”

Yes, I’m well aware of the fact that I was on fire.” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. “Thank you very much for your concern, but it’s getting to be a bit much. I would really appreciate if we could just accept that fact and move on, OK?” The two guards nodded in unison, followed shortly after by a more hesitant Dual. “As for what happened, well… I’m not completely sure about that part yet. I remember Celestia confronting Discord, then something attacking us-”

Dual jumped in immediately, cutting her off again. “Discord attacked you?”

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t really know what happened. At first I thought Discord attacked us, but I’m not so sure of that anymore.” Twilight sighed. “Anyways, there was this big shimmering white flame that came up from Celestia, kind of the one that was on me before. Except, then it wasn’t from Celestia, and it burned up everything. I’m still a bit confused about that part.

“Then, I came back here. Anything past that you already know at this point.” She shook her head again. “As for the whole ‘on fire’ thing, I’m not really sure what happened with that. I mean, it did burn at first, but when I got back here it didn’t hurt at all. Actually, it felt kind of good,” Twilight noticed the odd looks she was getting from that. “You know, in that whole, ‘this feels nice but I never want to do it again as long as I live’ sort of way.” She rubbed at her foreleg, a bit unsure what to say after that. For a minute or so they just stood there in a daze, trying to process what had happened.

“S-so,” Stratosphere spoke up tentatively, “is it over?” Twilight took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

“Yes, I think so. I mean I hope so. I want to say Celestia and Discord are alright, but…” She brought her hoof up to her chin, convinced that she was forgetting something important. “Oh my gosh, I forgot about Luna!” Twilight didn’t waste another second as she leapt over to the doors at the side of the room and hastily threw them open. “Luna,” she shouted, “are you alright?!?”

She ran over to Luna’s bedside to see the same flickering white flames from before completely covering Luna’s body. Without a second thought she jumped up onto the bed to check her pulse and breathing. Only when her hoof made contact with the flames did Twilight stop and consider what she was doing, but to her surprise the flames remained bound to Luna, not spreading any further across her hoof or the bed sheets. The three stallions barged in behind her as she counted out Luna’s pulse. There was a moment of silence where no one dared to say anything that might break Twilight’s concentration.

After a few minutes of silence, Twilight sighed and carefully climbed off the bed. Once again, Iron Clad was the first one to break the silence.

“Is she going to be alright, Princess?” Twilight glanced over at him, noting that he seemed just a bit too calm considering the situation at hand.

Twilight looked down and nodded, thinking about what she was about to say intently. “Yes, she’s breathing fine and her heart rate is normal.” She looked back up at the three. “I’m not going to say that we’re completely out of the woods just yet though, we still don’t know what the white fire signifies yet. I want to run some tests, but right now I think she just needs some time alone to rest.” Twilight dropped down to her haunches and let out a hearty yawn. “Actually, some sleep sounds pretty good about now.” She looked up to see Stratosphere shuffling on the spot.

“In that case, I’d like to go out and get some air, with your permission of course, Princess.”

Twilight nodded. “Of course, you’re dismissed.” He didn’t waste a single second as he sprinted over to the balcony, threw open eh windows, and took to the sky without breaking stride.

“Seriously though,” Dual asked at the exact moment Stratosphere had left the room. “What is his problem?”

Twilight shook her head and chuckled wearily. “From what I understand his job involves a lot of aerial reconnaissance and high altitude scouting. Considering that, I’m not really all that surprised he doesn’t like being cooped up indoors.”

“Kid couldn’t sit still for more than five minutes,” Iron Clad grunted, “Pegas-” He was cut off as Stratosphere burst back into the room, landing right in front of Twilight. “Well, that was fast.” Iron Clad said, genuinely impressed. Stratosphere ignored him, immediately locking eyes with Twilight.

“Princess Twilight,” he said, panting slightly from exertion, “I think you need to see this.”

“Why, what’s going on?” Twilight asked. “What exactly do I need to see?”

He looked back to the open balcony windows, and then he turned back to her and shook his head. “No, I think it’s best if you see this for yourself.” Twilight glanced over his shoulder to look at Dual, who just shrugged. She thought about it for another moment before nodding at Stratosphere and standing up.

Taking the hint, Stratosphere led the way over to the open balcony. With one smooth motion, he shot up into the air and started gaining altitude. Twilight followed right behind him, with just a little less grace. At first Stratosphere shot ahead of her, but after a minute or so he slowed his pace to match hers, always staying a fair bit ahead of her. It didn’t take long for them to reach a comfortable cruising altitude, and then it took only a couple of minutes of powered gliding to leave the confines of The Castle behind and to pass over the edge of the platform supporting it.

At was this point that Stratosphere took them down a bit so that they were flying over the forest valley below the city.

When he stopped suddenly, Twilight was confused, but then he pointed down at something.

It took her a moment to spot what he was pointing at, because of how high up they were still, but when she saw it she gasped. A towering pillar of white flames shot up from the forest, at least fifty feet above the forest canopy. Twilight looked around a bit to get her bearings; she noted that it was right at the center of the forest. It didn’t take her long to realize that it wasn’t static, it was expanding. She watched it slowly consuming the trees around it, sending up isolated pillars of acrid black smoke. As she watched it spread, awestruck, Stratosphere flew up beside her.

“Princess, would you like me to contact the weather patrol and have them douse the flames?”

Twilight shook her head, still staring at the growing inferno. “No, these flames are obviously magical in nature. I doubt dousing them would do any good” She looked up at him. “I want you to set up a contingent to watch the flames. Tell them to watch them, and to inform me if they show any sign of spreading outside of the forest proper. I don’t want anypony to some within five hundred yards of either the forest or the flames, and no attempts shall be made to douse them or control them. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, your highness.” He said, preforming a strange, aerial bow.

“Good,” she said sternly, “you have your orders then.” He nodded and shot upwards into the sky, quickly making his way back to The Castle.

Twilight looked back down at the inferno raging far below her, hovering in the air silently.

“And now, we wait…”





Cadance spiraled down through the chilly evening air, gliding silently alongside Twilight and Luna.

It had been about a day since she arrived in Canterlot, and the flames had finally opened up in such a way where they could finally go down and find out what had become of Discord and Celestia.

Of course everything would be alright, as she kept telling herself, but there was always that nagging fear at the back of her mind that said that maybe it wasn’t alright.

Cadence’s face set into a tight frown as Luna and Twilight tightened up their flight path, honing in on the smoke obscured clearing directly below them. She looked up to see the two, golden chariots, each pulled by a small team of Pegasi. They kept their shallow angle of attack, slowly pulling farther and farther away from the three Princesses while still approaching the ground beneath them.

Deciding that they would catch up to them in time, Cadance pulled her wings to her sides suddenly and shot down towards Twilight and Luna. Once again, she thanked the powers that be that she managed to keep her sleek and athletic figure even after he ascension. She was still faster in the air than any of the other Princesses were, and she was far more agile.

Well, she liked to think that anyway. She knew she would probably always be a little bit faster than Twilight, but she wasn’t quite sure how fast Celestia and Luna would be at their fastest.

As she came level with the others she flared out her wings and made a few quick adjustments, matching her speed with theirs. She looked over to her left to see that Luna had her eyes set on the clearing below, her expression was completely unreadable.

She had expected as much from Luna, she never really left her emotions out in the open.

She looked over to Twilight to see a completely different picture, her brow was furrowed and her face was contorted with obvious worry. Cadance sighed and shook her head, she thought bout what she could say to her before she spoke up.

“Hey, Twilight?” Twilight looked over to her. It seemed like she wanted to say something back to Cadance, but it was like she couldn’t bear the thought of uttering it out loud. Cadance just shook her head, putting on her best winning smile.

“Don’t worry about it so much,” she said with about as much sincerity as she could muster at that moment, “everything’s going to be just fine.”

Twilight stared back at her for a moment before shaking her head vigorously, like she was trying to focus on something. She put on a weak smile and nodded back at Cadance, then she set her gaze forward and picked up her pace. Cadance watched as she pulled ahead of her and Luna.

Cadance smiled at that. “Now if only I were so easy to convince, then maybe this wouldn’t be so hard.” She thought to herself.

Twilight suddenly shot down through an opening in the forest canopy, quickly followed by Luna. Cadance looked around a bit before she joined them. It seemed so strange to her. Just the day before this part of the forest had been burning so brightly, but it looked so peaceful now. Most of the trees were completely untouched, with the exception of a few outliers. Those trees were still glowing with white embers as they slowly smoldered.

“Such is magic,” she said to herself, dropping down through the thick canopy beneath her.

When she touched down on the ground, she looked around the clearing before her. Her eyes were immediately drawn towards the center.

In the center of the clearing, surrounded by a ring of scorched earth, lay the still forms of Celestia and Discord. They were hopelessly intertwined in an intricate embrace as they lay burning with a bright white flame.

Cadance quickly ran over to check if they were ok. Just when she was about to reach out to touch Celestia, Luna shouted.

“Stop!” Cadance froze in her tracks when she realized that her hoof was hovering mere inches away from an ethereal inferno. “The flames certainly aren’t malignant, but we are still unsure of whether or not they have any unwarranted side effects.”

“R-right,” Cadance said, backing off a few steps. “But we still need to see if they are alright.” Twilight walked past her.

“I’m on it.” Twilight said with assurance before she looked at the pair on the ground in front of her.

Slowly, carefully, Twilight extended her hoof out and poked it into the flames. They reacted sluggishly to her touch, slowly climbing half way up her arm before dissipating entirely. Twilight sunk her arm in to the knee and reached over to read Celestia’s pulse and to track her breathing.

To Cadance it seemed like an eternity, but eventually Twilight nodded and pulled her arm out. She made what could be described as a satisfied grunt and Cadance let out a silent thanks to the powers that be. Then Twilight reached her arm back into the fire, this time going in shoulder deep to do the same thing for Discord. Eventually she pulled her arm out again, turning around and giving Cadance and Luna the all clear.

Cadance let out a small sigh of relief, and she could have sworn she had heard Luna do the same thing behind her.

It was at that moment that the two oversized chariots came, somewhat gracefully, crashing through the canopy above them. They parked themselves at the edge of the clearing.

“So,” Cadance said, trying to address the Elephant in the room, “shouldn’t we try to wake them? Um, or something?” Twilight just smiled at her and shook her head.

“It wouldn’t do anything.” Twilight explained. “When I found Luna like this, nothing would wake her up for at least a day after we got back. She came to her sensed just a few minutes before the flames vanished completely, so we think it’s just something to do with the way the magic in the fire happens to work.”

Luna stepped forward and nodded. “As I said before, we believe that these flames exist to cleanse the darkness from the hearts of those who touch them.” She looked Cadance in the eyes before continuing. “Discord and Celestia have both lived for a very long time; each of them has more than their fair share of darkness in their lives.”

“So then, how long do you think they’ll be out for?” Cadance asked as she stared into the slowly flickering flames.

“It’s not certain.” Luna replied, also staring into the fire. “I expect Celestia will come around soon, based on how quickly I woke up.” She sighed. “I’ve seen my fair share of darkness as well.” She shook her head. “As for Discord… Well, he is old. He is very, very old. It may be quite a long time before he awakens.”

Twilight piped in suddenly. “But we’ll be there for him when he finally does wake up!”

Cadance smiled at her, quietly correcting her. “We will be there for both of them when they wake up.”

“That’s enough talk,” Luna said as she slowly lifted them of the ground. “It’s time to bring these two back to The Castle.”

“Aren’t you going to separate them first?” Cadance asked. “Surely you don’t intend to just leave them like that, do you?”

Luna threw her head back and laughed wistfully. “Who am I, but a humble Alicorn, to interfere with matters of the heart?” Cadance stood there, momentarily stunned as she tried to process that statement. She shook her head.

“Wait, are you implying what I think you’re implying?”

By now Luna had managed to move the two across the clearing, setting them down gently in the larger of the two chariots. “I imply nothing that I don’t know to be the truth. That is, unless The Alicorn of Love disagrees with me?” Luna had a sly smile on her face as she walked over to the chariots.

Cadance, in all her infinite wisdom, decided to let that particular slight slide. That is, until she saw Luna hop up onto Celestia’s private chariot.

“Um, Auntie?” Cadance called out to her. “You do realize that that is Celestia’s chariot, right?” Luna looked down at her, feigning confusion.

“My, whatever do you mean my dearest Cadance?” She asked a bit louder than she needed to for Cadance to hear her. “I don’t see my sister’s name emblazoned on the seat.” She said this as she ground her butt into the cushion beneath her. “Besides that, it seems to me that she is more than comfortable in the other chariot.” Luna grinned over at Celestia, still wrapped up in the other chariot with Discord. Cadance looked between the two chariots and resisted the incredibly strong urge to face hoof. Still, she didn’t say anything as Luna ordered the chariot pullers to take off.

As they pulled up through the canopy, Twilight walked up beside Cadance and put a knowing hoof on her shoulder.

“Come on,” Twilight said, “let’s let her have her fun.” Twilight laughed when Cadance looked down and the ground and sighed. “Besides, this way we can catch up with each other on the way back to The Castle. I’ve got a lot to tell you about since you last visited!”

Cadance smiled back at Twilight sympathetically. “I suppose you’re right,” she stood up and spread her wings, “it’s just…”

It’s just what, Cadance?” Twilight asked.

“Well, I wanted to ride in the chariot for once.” The moment Cadance said it she could feel her cheeks growing red. She leapt up into the air, and for the hundredth time that day she smiled as she heard Twilight following right behind her, laughing.

The only difference this time was that she felt like she had a real reason to smile, because everything turned out just fine in the end, somehow.

Just like it always did…