//------------------------------// // The offer, and a bit of fun // Story: Freedom Incarnate, or the Redemption of Chaos // by Spirit Wind //------------------------------// About a couple weeks of training pass and I thought I had good control of my magic, I made progress at least. I had seen Screwball at least twice more during this training period, and both times she wanted to hide me away from Celestia, even if I told her about what progress I had made in that time. Finally, one day, Celestia and I were walking in the royal garden, discussing my progress when we stopped by Discord’s statue. Celestia sighed, “Discord… You see, Spirit, he represents an overabundance of chaos, so much that nopony can live in peace. If you keep in mind your training, you can eventually represent the perfect amount of chaos, allowing for variety in everypony’s lives but not causing harm to anypony.” “You really think a free spirit like mine can have limits?” I questioned. “You’ve already shown great progress in keeping your chaotic powers under control, with a little more practice, I think you can.” Celestia assured. Even with only two weeks of working under Celestia, I could understand how Twilight felt about not wanting to let Celestia down. Celestia brought up an interesting idea, “I was thinking, since you know that your powers need control, and I can’t teach you how to use your power to the fullest, how would you like lessons from Discord himself?” “What? How? I…I mean that’d be cool!” I was shocked at her offer, considering I really wanted to meet Discord, but getting lessons from him had never crossed my mind. “I’ll warn you though, Discord is unpredictable, and may even refuse to help you. And the process to allow you to take lessons from him without setting him free will leave you as a statue for a while.” Celestia warned. This warning took me back to what Screwball had said about Celestia turning him into stone. Even with two weeks of study, I still had doubts about Celestia’s reasons for taking me as a student. This seemed like a perfect way to trick me into agreeing to be sealed away. However, if I agreed, I might be able to make my own magic stronger, with the penalty of being frozen in place for a while. This loss of freedom sealed my decision, “That’s a really cool offer, but I couldn’t take being stuck in one place for any amount of time. Thank you for teaching me control and all, but I’ll refuse this offer.” Celestia was unsurprised at my answer, “Now are you sure? This isn’t an offer everypony gets you know.” “Yeah, I’m sure.” I replied, confidently. “All right, consider this the end of your lessons then, now make sure you take what I’ve taught you to heart. I’m sure you’ll do fine.” Celestia told me before taking off for the main castle. Once Celestia was out of sight, I made my way over towards Discord’s statue. On my way there, I noticed two swirly violet eyes watching me as I walked. “Screwball, I’m heading to your dad’s statue, follow?” I asked her. Without a reply, she appeared beside me. We walked towards Discord’s statue, once there, we stared at his now-horrified expression for a while; the mismatched creature wasn’t as frightening as everyone thought. Eventually , Screwball asked, “Stone no, so?” “No stone.” I replied, “Celestia isn’t as bad as you think, Screwball. She can be very forgiving.” “Mountain dragon down surfing pie go to want, anyway? That doubt I.” Screwball asked randomly. At the time it sounded like a great idea, I was getting bored of Canterlot’s glamor. “Let’s go! Race you there!” I challenged her. With a clack of my hooves on the dirt garden ground, I vanished in a flash. Screwball took off her propeller hat and pulled a baseball out of it before placing her cap back on her head. A flick of her hoof and the baseball jumped high into the air, Screwball jumped towards it, and disappeared within like a black hole sucking in light. What was left in the garden was a lone baseball, and an unnoticed crack in a single stone statue. Atop Dragon Mountain, I summoned two large apple pies and a cooking spray slide down. Screwball and I began a rapid decent down the mountain, chuckling at the size and taste of the ridiculous pies. About halfway down, it turned into not only a slide race, but also an eating contest. I lost the eating contest, but won the race. I didn’t think a mare would be able to eat an entire pie that size, I was impressed. “That was awesome! How are you able to eat so much pie?” I asked, chuckling. “Practice!” She proclaimed proudly. We teleported back up for another run. Our fun lasted for hours! Since Screwball was as free as I was, I wasn’t surprised I could spend so long doing random things with the same pony. Normally, I’d spend an hour at most with any one individual, but then I’d lose interest and find someone or something else to involve myself with. We had just started work on building a gigantic building out of entire trees when a dark shadow covered our work area.