I trotted into Sweet Apple Acres, not knowing what I would see. Weird things were happening all over Equestria, but so far it had been more wacky than dangerous. Twilight Sparkle sent a letter to my house after her staircase had become a waterslide. She asked me to show up at her place, but when the barn’s bell began ringing, another letter sent me to the orchard to help the others. I did not know what to expect, but this was, well, not ‘under control’, but the problem could be put on the back burner for now.
I had seen many strange things in my life, in both my lives, but this was something else. Really, who thinks up bunnies on deer legs eating a cotton candy cloud that is raining chocolate milk? Pinkie Pie was trying to jump back into eating the cloud, but she was not having much luck. I came up beside Fluttershy in time for Spike to burp up a letter.
“Glad you’re here, Feria” Twilight said, picking up the letter with her magic. Her eyes widened as she read it. “Come on, girls! Princess Celestia wants us in Canterlot immediately!”
Without much other conversation, we loaded ourselves on the express train to Canterlot, a ride that should take a little over an hour. I took the time to ask what had happened to everpony this morning. I knew about Twilight’s waterslide and the fiasco at Sweet Apple Acres, but the others had their own tales to tell. Rarity’s dresses would not stop switching colors; Fluttershy’s cottage had turned upside down and reversed gravity; Rainbow Dash woke up to her cloud home being made of cotton candy; Pinkie had been baking when her confections quintupled in size.
“Basically, these were fairly harmless things,” I said. “These are the level of Unicorn school fraternity pranks. Nopony gets hurt, no real damage is done to possessions or workplaces, and it is basically a mild inconvenience.”
“Do you have any idea what it’s like to wake up covered in cotton candy?” Rainbow exclaimed.
“I had to spend all morning getting my dresses back to normal!” Rarity added in.
“It was still just a minor inconvenience,” I replied.
“Why are you defending this so adamantly?” Twilight asked. I blinked at her, startled in the realization that that is what I had been doing. I was acting like I had done those things and did not want them to be mad at me. I knew I had not, but why did it feel like it?
I thought back through both of my lives. It is a weird sensation, to think you were five years old twice, to know you grew up twice. The memories do not overlap. It is more like thinking of a specific time in my life and having two memories pop up, one from each life. It is easy to tell which memory is from which life.
Apologizing and defending a prank gone overboard, those were memories that popped up so easily. I had to calm ponies down a lot because of one friend. I smiled, laughing at one of the more exciting bits of magic. This is similar, is it not? If it was possible for one to last and for two to return, another can be here, right? Was that too much to hope for?
“I know that look!” Rarity said before I could answer Twilight’s question. “You are thinking about somepony you love.” One of the perks to having a dark colored coat is that nopony can tell when you blush. Not that she was right; I just tend to blush at even the thought of a relationship with anypony.
“OOH! REALLY?” Pinkie squeaked out, bouncing at the idea. She looked like she was about to throw a “congratulations-on-having-a-special-somepony/you-two-should-date” party. I do not know if such a party exists, but Pinkie would be the one to throw it.
“What, you remember some prank-master stallion back in Canterlot?” Rainbow asked, nudging me with her elbow. “He’ll have to go through the hoops of pranking mastery before I acknowledge him!”
“No, it is not like that,” I tried to say. Leave it to Rainbow Dash. As soon as she realizes it can be used to tease me, she is all over it, although Rarity was the one who pointed it out. I let them discuss it for the rest of the ride, better to think if they are distracted. Love? Was that not a bit strong of an emotion for who I was thinking of? I had wondered occasionally about that, but hearing somepony say that out loud brought up a cacophony of questions.
We arrived in Canterlot soon after, and ran our way through its streets. I did not have time to look at it all, but I could see it was in even stranger condition than Ponyville. I led them through a shortcut, halfway up Main Street and a left onto Starswirl Avenue, through the Unicorn school, down a few alleyways and into the palace gardens. Along with the oddities, something seemed to be missing from the garden, but I could not place my hoof on it. I shook off the idea as we continued into the throne room, where Celestia was waiting for us.
“Princess Celestia,” Twilight exclaimed, slightly out of breath. “We came as fast as we could!”
“Thank you, Twilight,” Celestia said, a little too calmly. “Thank you all.”
“Is this about the weather?” Twilight asked. “And the animal’s weird behavior? What’s happening out there? Why isn’t my magic working? Is there-?”
“Follow me,” Celestia said, cutting her off. She hurried to a chamber hidden behind the throne, we had to run to keep up. We were met with a door, the emblem of the sun emblazoned on it,. I could see no way of opening the door; I assumed it could only be opened with magic. I smiled at its similarity to the old castle.
“I’ve called you here for a matter of great importance. It seems an old…. Foe of mine, someone I believed to be gone long ago has returned. His name… is Discord.” To be honest, I smiled at the thought of him. I knew the strangeness happening in town was familiar. It was his Chaos. But she was referring to him as an enemy. Why?
“Discord is the mischievous spirit of Chaos,” Celestia continued. “He had managed to turn the world upside down. Ponies were miserable, so Luna and I stood up to him. We used the Elements of Harmony and rose up against him, turning him to stone.”
“All right, Princess!” Rainbow Dash interjected. Celestia ignored the outburst and kept on talking.
“I thought the spell we cast would keep him contained forever, but since Luna and I are no longer connected to the Elements the spell has been broken”
“No longer connected?” Twilight asked her.
“We are the Elements of Harmony now,” I answered for her. “The spells that were cast by the previous bearers have reset. Apparently some bonds take longer to break.”
“This is Canterlot Tower,” Celestia resumed. “This is where the Elements were kept since you recovered them. I need you to wield the Elements of Harmony once again and stop Discord before he thrusts all of Equestria into eternal Chaos.”
“But why us?” Twilight asked again.
“Hey, look! We’re famous!” Pinkie exclaimed before anypony could answer. I looked over to where she was bouncing; a stained-glass window gleamed in the midday sun. Its picture showed seven ponies shooting magic at one large pony. It was obviously us against Nightmare Moon. I found the whole thing quite charming, we shall forever be remembered on a window, and generations later somepony will ask about the picture and hear our tale.
Yet it reminded me of the other windows. There were windows and paintings and even a holiday dedicated to Celestia’s defeat of Nightmare Moon. They were dedicated to the worst day of her life, and for one thousand years she bore that burden. Every day she saw the pictures, and every night Luna’s likeness stared down from the moon’s surface. One thousand years of being reminded of her biggest failure, until the day we saved Luna from herself.
“You seven showed the full potential of the Elements by harnessing the magic of your friendship to beat a mighty foe,” Celestia said, interrupting my thoughts. “Although Luna and I once wielded the Elements, it is you who now control their power. You have to be the ones to do this.”
“Hold on a second” Pinkie yelled. “Eternal Chaos comes with chocolate rain, you guys. Chocolate rain!”
“So far, I’m with Pinkie on this one,” I said. “Some chaos in the world does not seem that bad, and I think maybe we all can work together to regulate what is “overboard” in terms of what he can do? I mean, we can at least try before blasting him, can we not?” Celestia’s expression dropped. For a moment, she wasn’t ‘the Princess’, she was somepony concerned for another. It only lasted a moment before her performance was back.
“We’d be honored to use the Elements of Harmony again. Although, will they work against him this time?” Twilight asked. She glanced at me, confused on why I was disagreeing with Celestia. We watched as Celestia opened the door with the Sun emblem, and levitate out a beautiful gem encrusted box.
“Have no fear, ponies,” Celestia announced. “I have total confidence you will be able to defeat Discord with these!”She opened the box and we all let out a gasp. It was empty.
“Oh well,” Pinkie stated. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be outside in the chocolate puddles with a giant swizzle straw.” I grabbed her by the tail to keep her in place.
“The Elements!” Twilight exclaimed. “They’re gone!”
“That chamber is protected by a powerful spell that only I can break!” Celestia boomed. “This doesn’t make sense!” I heard a familiar laugh in the air, a type of laugh that makes ponies smile at its sound. Well, it would if they were thinking of the one laughing as a friend, not a foe.
“Making sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?” the voice said. It was a sentence I had often heard around the old castle.
“Discord, show yourself!” Celestia commanded. One of the stained glass windows glowed. The painted figure of Discord began to move around in the glass, even to other windows.
“Did you miss me, Celestia?” Discord chuckled. “I missed you. It’s quite lonely being encased in stone but you wouldn’t know that, would you? Because I don’t turn ponies into stone.”
“Enough!” She replied, stomping her hoof. “What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?”
“Oh, I just borrowed them for a teensy little while.” He snapped his talon and made the pictures of the Elements disappear to prove his point.
“You’ll never get away with this, Discord!” Celestia shouted at him. I wanted to say the line was quite cliché, but I held my tongue.
“Oh, I’d forgotten how grim you can be, Celestia. It’s really quite boring.”
“Hey!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Nopony insults the Princess!” She flew at Discord, forgetting that he was just a picture in a window. He teleported away as she smacked directly into the glass.
“You must be Rainbow Dash, famed for her Loyalty, the Element of Harmony you represent.”
“That’s right!” She replied, angrier than before. “I’ll always be loyal to the Princess!”
“How does he know that?” Twilight asked quietly. She probably was asking herself, but I felt the need to answer anyway.
“Chaos can affect ponies in both a major way, like giving bunnies deer legs, or in a more personal way,” I said. “He is able to know about ponies so that the personal Chaos can be more effective. It does not get too personal, but he will know our biggest strength and weakness.”
“How do you know that?” She asked. I sighed. I knew I would need to tell her about my previous life eventually, although here is not the place, nor is it the time.
“I can’t believe we’re wasting our time talking to a tacky window!” Rarity said interrupting us.
“The beautiful Rarity,” Discord replied, ignoring the tacky comment, “Representing the Element of Generosity, if I’m not mistaken.”
“So you know who we are, big deal,” Applejack interjected.
“I know much more than that, honest Applejack,” he said his painted form growing in size.
“You seem to know our strengths too,” Twilight said.
“Yes, Twilight Sparkle, and yours is one of the powerful and elusive of all, the Element of Magic. Fluttershy is Kindness and Pinkie Pie’s is one favorite of mine-Laughter!” True to her Element Pinkie began laughing as Discord began dancing on the painted Twilight’s head. Twilight glared at her for a moment.
“He’s standing on your head!” Pinkie laughed, as if that made it a good idea.
“Hold on a moment,” Discord laughed. “Seven little ponies? Tia, I’m shocked. Bringing in an extra pony won’t do much. You know the seventh was lost. ”
“It has been recovered,” I stated, approaching the window. For a moment, Discord’s face registered actual shock, but it quickly went back to his lopsided grin.
“Oh silly Celestia, you found a good replacement! She even has a likeness to your precious older sister! The same name too! What luck!” I was confused. Was this denial or did he really not realize that I am me? I mean, somepony coming back to life is weird, but why did my heart grow heavy at his words?
“Stop stalling, Discord!” Celestia shouted, stepping between me and him. “What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?
“Oh, so boring, Celestia” Discord replied. His painted form grew again as he floated around the windows. His voice began to echo off the walls. “Fine, I’ll tell you, but I’ll only tell you my way. To retrieve your missing Elements, just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where you began.” He laughed as his painted form became a painting once again.
“Can we go home now?” Fluttersy asked as Twilight began pacing.
“What do you reckon he meant?” Applejack asked. “Twists and Turns and endin’ back where we started?”
“Twists and turns… Twists and turns,” Twilight contemplated. Her gaze drifted to the window. “Twists and turns! That’s it! I bet Discord hid the Elements in the palace labyrinth!”
“Good luck, my little ponies. The fate of Equestria is in your hooves,” Celestia said to us.
“Thanks Princess. We won’t let you down.” Twilight led the others out of the tower, yet I lingered for a moment.
Celestia was returning my gaze, her Persona dropped. I no longer saw a Princess, but a kind mare who had seen and experienced too much heartbreak in her lifetime. Seeing her like that makes me want to protect her, to stay here and bring what comfort I could.
“Tia,” I began, but she put her hoof up silence me.
“You have all your memories,” She replied carefully. “While I did not see them, Luna told me what she observed. Your friendship with Discord was different than what either of us thought. What were you to eachother?”
“I think I died before either of us truly figured that out.” I replied. I found myself staring at the carpet. I hated that. I hated the fact that I died to leave them behind, to not know things like that. I left words unsaid and questions unanswered. Yet if I had not died that night, I might not have met the friends I have today. Is one of those a better option?
“Just remember, things changed while you were gone. He has changed while you were gone. Do not let your memories block what is there now.”
I nodded as I left to join the others. Could he have changed that much while I was gone? Celestia did have to turn him to stone. My heart grew heavier as I realized that it was probably my fault. I died, leaving him to be alone. I remembered what Azura’s crystal message had said. He was angry and out of control when he found out. She said he went between letting his magic loose on the castle to yelling to trying to hide crying. She was worried he would descend into madness. That’s what he did, did he not?
I drove him mad. My death drove him mad. I wanted to blame that magic that had murdered me, but I kept feeling the blame was my own.
My friends had just made it to the labyrinth entrance when I caught up. I noticed what was missing from the palace gardens. A statue had once stood on a pillar a few yards to my left, but was currently empty. That is the place Discord had been when he became a statue.
“We have to go in there?” Fluttershy asked.
“Nope!” Rainbow Dash stated flapping her wings. “Dopey Discord forgot about these babies! I’ll just do a quick flyover and we’ll have the Elements in no time!” I knew it would not be that easy, but I let her try anyway. She flew up high before immediately dropping back to the ground.
“Are you okay?” I tried to ask over her panicked screams.
“My wings!” she yelled. I thought she hurt her wings, but I was shocked to see that they had disappeared altogether. I heard Fluttershy scream, and turned around in time to see Twilight and Rarity’s horns vanish. I did not need to look to know my wings and horn were gone as well. By instinct I tried to shrug what qualified as my wings’ ‘shoulder’ and shake out the ‘wrist’, but I could no longer even remember what muscles I was supposed to flex to do that.
A glowing light appeared in front of us. As the light began to take on a true form, Discord’s laughter filled the air. We finally got to see Discord in his true form, a long brown-furred body, a lion paw and an eagle talon, dragon tail, a lizard leg, a goat leg, deer and goat antlers upon a horse’s head, and his wings were a feathered one and a leathery one.
“You! You should see the looks on your faces! Priceless!” As he laughed at us, I began laughing too.
“Why are you laughing?” Rainbow asked me, obviously annoyed.
“It is the beard!” I got out between gasps of laughter. “I did not expect him to have that beard! It looks good! But I did not think he would have it!”
“Give us our wings and horns back!” Twilight demanded, ignoring my laughter.
“You’ll get them back in good time,” Discord promised. “I simply took them to ensure there is no cheating. You see this it the first rule of our game: no flying and no magic.”
“The first rule?”
“The second rule is everypony has to play or the game is over, and I win. Good luck, everypony!” And with that he disappeared in a flash of light.
“Never fear, girls. We have each other.” Twilight exclaimed.
“Yeah!” Rainbow agreed. “Like Twilight said, there’s nothing we can’t overcome if we all stick together!”
“All right girls! Let’s do this!”
“Together!” We yelled, stepping into the maze. Almost immediately new hedges popped up, separating us from one another.
“Stay calm!” I heard Twilight scream to us. “Everypony head to the middle as fast as you can, and we’ll regroup there!” I heard them reply in confirmation before heading out on my own.
Soon I could not hear them anymore. I began to think about him again. He seemed like himself, like the Discord I know. Yes, he had taken the Elements of Harmony, but he did not want to be a statue again. Who would?
I knew this maze better than any of the staff, so even with its alterations I made it to the center fairly easily. Discord was waiting for me. He sat upon a hedge throne; different flowers grew out of the top, roses and camellias and hydrangeas all on one bush.
“Nopony should have made it through that quickly.” He stated.
“Nopony else was the master of hide and seek in this maze” I retorted with a just as overconfident grin.
“You are just like my Feria!” he laughed.
“But I am-“
“Now darling, pull up a seat! Wait for your friends to get here! If they want to get here.” He pulled a chair out of thin air, picking me up and placing me on it. ‘Chair’ is not the right word for it. It was large enough to be a bed and was made up of random patches of fabric, the back shaped in a spade almost as tall as him. It was quite comfortable.
“My friends will come for me,” I stated.
“Yes, well you never know,” he said, ruffling my hair. It was easy for him to do with my horn missing. “You might think you know everypony, but then they pop out a surprise and turn out to be something you never thought possible!” His words seemed carefree, but I could read between the lines.
“You are talking about ‘your Feria’. Or at least whoever killed her.” I stated. His form stiffened at the thought, but returned to his normal happy demeanor.
“So you know of the lost sister!” He pulled a cotton candy cloud out of the sky and filled chocolate milk with a glass, and yes that is how he did it. He added a swizzle straw made out of some red candy and released the cloud back into the sky.
“That’s because I-”
“She was fun, unlike the other princesses. She and Azura were great! I assume you are a princess too, judging by the whole being-an-Alicorn thing. Were you a crafted Alicorn? Or are you from one of the other sister’s lines?”
“Crafted Alicorn?” I had never heard of that.
“I assume not, since you don’t know what that is. Celestia said something about ‘understanding a magic so well one is able to ascend to being an Alicorn’ but whatever. It was all a theory to her. I say, if Starswirl, the pony who figured out everything about magic that is still in today’s magic systems, could not get this so-called ‘ascension’ nopony can.
“Speaking of, I already visited the other royals. That Blueblood fellow was quite shocked to awake to his house becoming a bouncy castle. I do love those things! The fun with Princess Cadence was a bit more thoughtful! It was easy to tell which Alicorn she was related to, she looks almost exactly like Azura! Anyhoodle, her and her fiancé were hilarious to see! Maybe I should just show you!
He pulled up a magic ball of light which expanded into a screen of elsewhere in Canterlot. Two familiar ponies were panicking in a room. One was a pink stallion with a pink, purple and yellow mane, the other was a white mare with a blue mane.
“Is that-?” I was doubled over laughing.
“I like calling them ‘Prince Bolero and Glimmer Shield’. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
“You should make sure they know the names.”
“Everything with their names have been changed to that until I feel like taking the spell off. Even if they speak it or write it down it will change.”
“Why did Celestia say you needed to be defeated? This is hilarious!” I realized that struck a nerve. His carefree attitude and cocky smile stayed, but his movements were a bit more ridged.
“I did go quite overboard, more than just these type of pranks,” he said. “A lot of ponies found full Chaos to be unbearable in normal life.” It made sense. Everyone can take fun too far, and those with as much magic as he did, it would be easier.
“One more question,” I said. “You know- er… you knew the… previous Feria very well. What was she to you?” I was getting used to shocking him with things like this. His body language was not as rigid, but it was slower, a bit sad. He even calmed down his speech and attitude.
“I truly don’t know,” he said. Did his expression darken? It looked too intense for how I knew him. “Oops! Almost got serious there for a minute! Can’t have that happen, now can we? What would Equestria do if I decided to sit here and brood all day?” His smile was forced, his movement was erratic. He was pretending it never happened, trying to force himself into what he calls ‘normal’. I should want to help him, should I not? Why was I hesitating on this?
I heard voices on the other side of the hedge. My friends had come for me, I was filled with joy. Yet my joy fell when I saw something blue streak across the sky. Why was Rainbow Dash flying away? The hedges dropped, leaving a crater where the labyrinth was. The chair I was in disappeared from under me. I saw the rest of my friends, their coats grayer than usual. They probably just got dirtied up on their way through the maze, although I couldn’t explain why Rarity was carrying a giant boulder.
“Well, well, well!” Discord cackled. He was back to his previous demeanor, fun and carefree. With a snap of his fingers my horn and wings were back. “Somepony broke the “no wings, no magic” rule. Game’s over, my little ponies. You didn’t find your precious Elements. Looks like we’re in for a big old storm of Chaos!” He conjured up a broken umbrella and threw back his head in laughter, and I couldn’t help but laugh with him.