//------------------------------// // Ch. 1 - Color Force // Story: Apple of Discord // by Permutator //------------------------------// Chapter 1 - Color Force * * * * … She was awake. The last thing Applejack remembered was using the Elements against Discord and fainting. What had happened since then? “…and then they both passed out.” She imagined Twilight telling the story. “Applejack and… this fellow?” The stallion who was speaking would be Doctor… Doctor… Doctor Horse. “Applejack and Discord, yes.” Applejack had the terrible feeling she was being too optimistic. “I’m still having a hard time believing this is Discord.” “We’re pretty sure it’s him. Discord was sitting in a lawn chair on the ice, and we found this stallion lying on the ground in the same place.” She wasn’t sure where that idea came from. Discord as a stallion? Applejack pictured it: a khaki unicorn with a black mane. His horn didn’t match his body; instead, it was the same light blue color his left horn was as a draconequus. His eye color… she couldn’t figure out, since he was apparently unconscious, so his eyes would probably be closed. Yes, unconscious and lying on a wooden hospital bed under purplish covers, facing her. In fact, she could envision the whole room. The walls would be striped in slightly different shades of blue. The ceiling would be green. The floor would be checkered in a washed-out yellow color. On a bedside table next to her would be a purple lamp, a green tissue box, and her hat. A number of ponies would be there to visit her. Twilight, of course, since she was the one talking. Rainbow Dash. Rarity. Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy, probably, if—if—they had managed to defeat Discord without her. Spike? No, not Spike. If he was still lost, Twilight wouldn’t be so calm, but, even though Applejack wasn’t sure where she thought he would be, she had a feeling it wasn’t here. Her family… no, that would be way too many ponies at once. And no visitors for Discord, obviously. Then there was the doctor with his glasses, lab coat, and stethoscope. Something was very wrong. She shouldn’t have been able to imagine all of that so quickly and easily. In her mind, she pawed at some orange hairs on the bed that would have come out of her coat. Every one was a slightly different length, and they caught the light just like hairs would… “Applejack! You’re awake!” Oh, right. Someone would probably notice if she moved. Fluttershy was approaching as the others turned to look. “Am I?” She had been looking at the fur on her bed, so her eyes were open. She looked up at Fluttershy, though there wasn’t much point, since, despite the bewildering realism, none of this seemed to actually be real. “You sure?” “Definitely!” Pinkie Pie bounced over. “Either that, or I’m asleep, too, and we’re sharing a dream. Or maybe I’m just a part of your dream.” She gasped. “Oh, no! Don’t wake up, Applejack! If you do, we’ll all disappear!” “If this is a dream, then none o’ y’all are real, so why’s it matter if I wake up?” “I feel pretty real. And if I’m real, then you can’t wake up. Phew!” She drew her hoof across her forehead as if wiping off perspiration. “That’s a relief. Existential crisis averted!” Applejack chuckled. “I’m pretty sure I’m imaginin’ all this,” she said. “Why would you think that, Applejack?” asked Rarity. “She’s probably exhausted,” said Doctor Horse. “Which means—” “I don’t think so, doc.” Applejack didn’t feel tired, just disconnected. Since it was imaginary, she could view the room from any angle, and she found that, most of the time, she had been looking down from a spot above herself instead of through her own eyes. Her body was like a puppet she could use to interact with the contents of her own mind, not really containing her. She used it to chuckle. “I can prove it, too.” She imagined her bed floating off the ground, carrying her with it. She put her hooves behind her head and smiled at the awestruck ponies below her, then decided to raise them up, as well. “Applejack?” Twilight looked down at the ground. “Are you doing this?” “Ee-yup!” Applejack was already beginning to feel like a god. Imagining was pretty fun. Why didn’t she do it more often? She tried to think of other things she could impress her imaginary friends with. “Oh, and how ’bout this? Now we’re all alicorns! Y’all can fly on your own now.” Pretending to use her new wings, she flew out of bed. She realized she wasn’t wearing her hat and, with a thought, made it leap onto her head. “No way… I’m—hkk!” Rainbow Dash coughed up a cherry, but she seemed too preoccupied by the new addition to her forehead to be annoyed. “I’m magic!” “I think I know what happened!” Twilight said. The ponies were still held aloft by Applejack’s willpower rather than their own wings, and Twilight Sparkle was now anxiously treading the air. It was a bit distracting. Applejack involuntarily summoned a dragon claw to hold one flailing hoof in place, and Twilight stopped moving. “Applejack,” she shook the claw off, “you have Discord’s powers now! The Elements of Harmony transferred them to you!” Applejack froze. “Discord’s powers?” She gently floated the bed and the ponies to the ground. Was this not her imagination, but real life? Did that even make sense? “Yes!” Twilight drummed the floor excitedly with her hooves, then laughed. “Yes! You’ve got Discord’s powers, Applejack!”   There was a moment of stunned silence. Then everyone started talking at once. “Oh, my gosh, Applejack, that’s so cool! You can do anything now! You can—” “Oh, my goodness. I’m so happy for you, Applejack.” “I simply cannot believe your good fortune, Applejack! I’m certain these powers are in good—” “This is going to be so great! It’ll be just like if Discord was good, and grew apples, and was Applejack! Do you think—” Applejack was beginning to feel overwhelmed. Zippers appeared on their mouths, silencing them. “Whoops,” said Applejack. “Didn’t mean to do that.” With a rather pointless wave of her hoof, she removed the zippers. Equestria’s one and only alicorn stallion glanced at his similarly-endowed company and cleared his throat. “Well, if you have Discord’s powers, there isn’t much we can do for you here. You’d best be on your way, Applejack.” “Right. Yeah.” Applejack got out of bed in the normal way. She wasn’t sure what she thought of having Discord’s powers yet, and she didn’t want to use them until she was. Well, except for… “We all probably shouldn’t be alicorns.” She waved again, and the room was lightened of four horns, five pairs of wings, and, as evidenced by a few groans, some degree of everyone’s good spirits. “I need to get this chaos magic business figured out,” she said, walking towards the door. “Seeya, doc.” “So long, Applejack,” said the doctor. “Take care with that chaos magic. It’s a big responsibility.” “I hear you.” She entered the hallway, and her friends followed. Finally, Rainbow Dash spoke again. “Discord’s powers? That’s awesome!” She zipped past Applejack and turned to face her. “You can do whatever you want now, Applejack!” Applejack nodded in acknowledgement. “I s’pose I can.” “I mean, forget apple farming! You could take over the world if you wanted to!” “I don’t think so.” Twilight looked over her shoulder. “The last guy who tried that is going to the dungeon as soon as he wakes up.” “Yeah, but he was crazy. I bet Applejack could do it, no problem! Right, Applejack?” Applejack chuckled. “I don’t know. I don’t really want to take over the world.” “Well, yeah. That makes sense. But think of all the other stuff you can do!” Rainbow Dash hovered right in front of Applejack, moving backwards. “Literally anything.” “Yeah!” Pinkie Pie chipped in. “Think of all the great stuff Discord did! In fact, think of all the bad stuff Discord did! You can do that, too!” Applejack rolled her eyes. “Would y’all stop tryin’ to tell me how I can use my powers for evil? That ain’t exactly what I’ve got in mind for ’em.” “So, what do you have in mind?” asked Rarity. “I haven’t got figured that out yet.” Applejack went through the hospital doors. “And, uh, if y’all don’t mind, I need a moment to get it figured out. So, if I could have a moment alone…?” The five of them glanced at each other uncertainly. Rarity spoke. “Well, don’t worry too much about it, Applejack. This is truly a gift! And you know you can always come to us for advice if you need to.” The others nodded their assent. “Thanks, everypony,” said Applejack. “Bye, now.” And with that, she left her friends and began to walk through Ponyville. When she was technically out of hearing, her vision of Rainbow Dash, who, apparently, was also the real Rainbow Dash, spoke. “What’s with her?” “You heard her,” said Twilight. “It’s a lot to take in all at once. Just give her time.” *                   *                   * She hadn’t been entirely sure where she was going, and, probably because of chaos magic, her wandering had taken a strange turn; she had found herself floating on a cloud in some unknown part of the sky, reclining in one of Rainbow Dash’s characteristic positions. It was a secluded spot, and it seemed like a good place to get her thoughts in order. What she had the hardest time grasping was the idea that the world around her was real. It still seemed imaginary, like it was all inside her head, but there was far too much detail for that to be true. She tried closing her eyes (even though there was no point, since she didn’t see things in the normal sense anymore) and clearing her mind to see if she could wake up into whatever realer reality she had been in before the Elements of Harmony had their malfunction. That didn’t work, and, when she tried imagining again, all she could picture was herself, high in the sky, surrounded by clouds. Well, at least clearing her mind hadn’t destroyed the world. A terrible thought struck Applejack. What if she was dead? That possibility suddenly seemed more real than anything she had experienced since waking up. Her peculiar calm broke immediately, and she sat up on the cloud. That would mean Discord had won for good, since, without the Element of Honesty, no one could oppose him. Fluttershy would blame herself… and she wouldn’t even be wrong per se. Applejack frowned worriedly. What would Apple Bloom do without her in a world ruled by chaos? But if she was dead, then who were all the ponies she had seen since then? Surely they hadn’t all died, too. And if they had, why hadn’t they all gotten Discord’s powers like she had? Applejack began to relax. No, she was pretty sure she was alive. That meant this was reality. And that meant… …She had all of Discord’s powers. In reality. As far as she could tell, those powers were controlled by her imagination. She stood up on the cloud and looked out at the sky around her, dotted here and there with clouds. They began to move, gathering themselves to form a shape. Applejack’s head. She stared at it. Was that the best she could come up with? Really? She was just utterly astounded by how awful her imagination was. She drew the white face closer to her and kicked it. In the face. The whole thing, several times her size, dissipated, and it occurred to her that she probably would have made a good sky-clearer if she had been a pegasus. Anyway, however uncreative, the experiment had worked. Anything she imagined would become real. So, she definitely should not imagine… “No, Applejack, don’t think about that,” she said aloud. “You’ll just end up destroyin’ the world.” Destroying the world? The apocalypse? Yes, that would be a terrible thing to imagine. The sky turned crimson around her. Dark clouds filled the sky, swirling above. Meteors began to punch through the cloud layer, burning white and plummeting towards Equestria below her. “No! No, no, no!” She concentrated on making it stop, but about half of that effort seemed to go into thinking about what she was trying to stop, which wasn’t particularly helpful. She managed to clear the sky and turn it blue again, but she couldn’t get the meteors to go away. They jittered through the sky as if confused. At least they weren’t hitting the ground, but Applejack couldn’t keep this going forever. Maybe she could turn them into something harmless. Giant apples came to mind, but she didn’t think those would be any better than meteors and oh look they were apples now. Then they were cherries. Then they were rather poorly-remembered renditions of Discord’s head. Then they were clouds. Oh, clouds! That was perfect. Then they were apples again. Great. Applejack tried imagining the apples being eaten by invisible giants. “Oh, come on… Just eat the cores! Y’ain’t even, real, why’re you so picky?” She frustratedly shoved the cores down their throats and then did her best to stop thinking about giant things in the sky. So, this was chaos magic. In all her adventures, Applejack had never come across anything half as dangerous as chaos magic. She wondered if this power was safer in Discord’s hands; he, at least, had enough experience using it to be able to simply rule the world instead of destroying it. Applejack shook her head. No, she was a pony who could be trusted with dangerous things. She drew herself up to her full height and spoke to the empty sky. “If anypony can keep a lid on Discord’s magic, it’s either me or Princess Celestia. And on her name, I swear to use it responsibly and protect the world from, uh… me.” She shook her head. “I mean, from chaos!” An imaginary crowd began to cheer and applaud. “Oh, boy.” Applejack silenced it sheepishly. “This ain’t gonna be easy.” *                   *                   * Applejack entered the gate to Sweet Apple Acres feeling pretty good about herself. On the way back, she had managed to avoid accidentally conjuring almost anything. There was that one giant spider that had attacked a pony passing on the street, but a tree had fallen on it. Looking back on it, that was probably also a bout of accidental chaos magic, which was a bit frustrating. Nopony was hurt, though. That’s what counted. She was pleased to see that, just like last time, the Elements of Harmony had reversed all of Discord’s changes; she wanted to avoid using his magic whenever possible. With the farm dry and right-side up, it was a perfect time to paint the new chicken coop. The first step was to get a bucket of paint and a brush. She identified the shed near the house where they were kept and started on her way. Of course, she didn’t really have to walk there… She shut down that train of thought before she accidentally visualized something. It was quite a long way, though. She hadn’t really noticed that before, or at least, not since she was a filly. How did she normally occupy herself while making this trek? Well, she didn’t need chaos magic to get there faster. She began to canter, then to gallop. With some concern, she noticed that, since she was just imagining herself travelling quickly instead of moving her body like a normal pony, the rather extreme pace didn’t tire her. Did that count as using Discord’s magic recklessly? …No, of course not. What was she supposed to do, never move again? Applejack slowed to a trot as she approached the shed, then back to a walk as she opened the door. The inside was cluttered with various tools and materials for use around the farm, and, despite the door and three windows letting in the sun, the lighting was poor towards the backs of the shelves. The bucket and brush were usually kept together… wherever they were. Finding things in here was never easy. But before she could start looking, she was struck with the sudden realization that she was perfectly aware of every item in the shed, despite the poor visibility and complete lack of organization. She didn’t have to search for things like a normal pony; the whole scene was laid out clearly in her mind. There was one problem, though. She could have found a scrub brush in the shed. She could have found several wooden buckets. She could have found any of nine trowels, though she wasn’t sure why they owned so many of the things. She was certain, however, that this shed contained no paint brushes or paint buckets, not even ones of the wrong color. Nonetheless, she began to look through the shed out of habit. Was there a paint bucket behind this bag of fertilizer? …Yes. She sighed. Yes, there was a bucket of red paint. But it had not been there a moment ago, and this farm was chaos magic-free. It would have to go. She picked it up and turned around to find the shelves around her covered in red paint buckets. Somehow, she had managed to trick herself into thinking she didn’t “see” them with her back turned, even though she was the one who had accidentally created them. She looked around with frustration. “Aw, hayseed. How’m I gonna get rid of all this paint?” The buckets began to vanish. However convenient this was, Applejack didn’t have to think too hard about it to decide that making things disappear was not a safe use of Discord’s magic. She tried to stop the process before something bad happened. She reversed it instead. As she realized that she was making the mistake of actually summoning paint buckets again instead of removing them, she involuntarily sped up the process. Buckets continued to appear only on the shelves, but they began to run into each other with dull, metallic thuds and shove each other off. Red paint splattered everywhere as buckets came open on impact with the floor, but the floor itself was becoming less and less visible under the buckets at an alarming rate. “Oh, no. Oh, no, this is bad.” Waterfalls of buckets were falling off the shelves. “I’ve gotta stay in control. Come on, Applejack!” She concentrated on stopping the flow of buckets, but they were starting to genuinely overwhelm her, which made it hard to focus. Paint buckets were spilling out of the door. Then the shed ran out of room, and they were being forced out of the door, taking Applejack, now buried, with them. Her head broke the surface as she was carried out into a shallower and calmer area of the flow of buckets, and she managed to stop the process. Now it was time to assess the damage… “Wow, Applejack. Whaddaya need all this paint for?” Applejack slowly turned around. “Apple Bloom? How long’ve you been here for?” “Since a few seconds ago when we noticed all these buckets coming out of the shed.” Sweetie Belle was here, too? Applejack hadn’t noticed. “We figured it must have been your new powers. Apple Bloom told us all about them! That’s why we were looking for you.” And there was Scootaloo, which made three out of three Crusaders. Great. Applejack looked back at her sister. “How’d you find out about that, Apple Bloom?” “When me ’n’ Granny Smith ’n’ Big Mac went to visit you at the hospital, we ran into Pinkie Pie. She told us you were outta the hospital and had all o’ Discord’s powers.” She grinned up at Applejack. “An’ it looks like you really do! So we were wonderin’ if you could help us with somethin’.” “But first, what’s with this huge pile of buckets?” Scootaloo tapped one with her hoof. “You could paint all of Equestria red with this much paint!” “Red?” Applejack said with a start. She looked around at the paint buckets. “Oh, consarn it! I wanted to paint the chicken coop blue, not red!” “The chicken coop?” Apple Bloom looked over her shoulder at the distant and decidedly not Equestria-sized building. Sweetie Belle furrowed her brow. “Why do you need all this paint for one little chicken coop?” “Uh. Ahem,” Applejack cleared her throat and, against her better judgement, erased all of the paint buckets. She controlled her relief when it seemed to work as intended and, now back on her hooves, addressed the Crusaders. “Look, y’all, this here was just an accident, alright? I was tryin’ to find a bucket o’ real paint to use, and Discord’s magic just got all outta control. I’ll get the—” “Oh, like that big meteor storm earlier?” Sweetie Belle interrupted. “Everyone says—” “Shush!” Applejack interrupted her in turn. “Like I was sayin’, I’ll get the hang of it. But until then, just… try not to give my powers any ideas, okay?” The three of them looked at her blankly. “What I mean is, don’t talk about things like… ‘meteor storms’ around me,” Applejack tried to focus on the words instead of their meaning, “or else they might happen.” The Crusaders exchanged alarmed looks. “That sounds really dangerous,” said Scootaloo. “O’ course it’s dangerous! That’s why I don’t want y’all pushin’ your luck. But don’t worry, I’ll get the hang of it, like I said. It’ll be fine, long as nopony—” “Ice cream!” shouted Apple Bloom. “Beg pardon?” The three fillies shared conspiratorial glances, and Scootaloo spoke up. “Yeah, ice cream! Hey, Applejack, have you ever thought about what the difference is between an ice cream and a milkshake?” Applejack narrowed her eyes. For once, her developing mental defenses were holding fast. “Are y’all tryin’ to get my magic to make ice cream for ya?” Sweetie Belle’s face lit up. “The difference,” she said slyly, “is that a mountain of ice cream stays up, but a mountain of milkshake just spills everywhere.” Uh-oh. For an instant, a mountain of milkshake stood in the middle of a nearby field. Then, just as Sweetie Belle had predicted, it collapsed and began to flow rapidly across the farm. The Crusaders turned at the splattering sound emitted by the monstrous quantity of dessert behind them. Scootaloo scowled at Sweetie Belle and opened her mouth to say what would probably have been a few choice words about the tactic she had chosen before a cold, strawberry-flavored wave crashed over them all. The scene now surrounding Applejack as she stood cannons-deep in milkshake included three shocked, shivering, sticky fillies and a freshly-flooded farm. None of this was a pleasing sight. “Apple Bloom!” she snapped. “I said it was dangerous! I told’ja not to give my chaos magic any crazy ideas! And now look what’s happened! You’ve gone an’ flooded the farm again! You’re lucky I didn’t accidentally…” She stopped herself. “You’re lucky somethin’ worse didn’t happen!” Apple Bloom looked at the ground resentfully. “Sweetie Belle did the mountain, not me,” she said. She turned back around, but avoided Applejack’s gaze; Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo followed suit. “But you started it. It didn’t seem like such a bad idea, did it? But that’s just how this magic works!” Applejack kicked at the stuff covering the ground with a hind leg. “Y’ask for a little bit of ice cream to eat, and y’end up standin’ in milkshake a foot deep.” She raised a foreleg to check the actual depth and found it was closer to six inches. The point, however, remained. “What were you thinking, Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo finally asked. “Uh…” “Look, it doesn’t matter. I just hope y’all’ve learned your lesson ’bout chaos magic. All this?” Applejack gestured at the pink farm around them. “This is what happened when you tried to get ice cream. Imagine what woulda happened if…” She quickly stopped imagining. “Just don’t push your luck.” The Crusaders murmured their assent. After a pause, Apple Bloom hesitantly spoke up. “So, this might be a bad time to ask, but… could you maybe use your magic to help us get our cutie marks?” Applejack’s hoof met her face as uncontrollably as the milkshake mountain had appeared. “Help ya get’cher—? Bad time t’ask, huh? Yeah, you might be right about that!” She set her hoof back on the ground and looked down at Apple Bloom. “I’m not gonna help ya get your cutie marks before it’s time, not even on a good day. You’re—” “No, no, no, Applejack.” Apple Bloom shook her head. “I don’t mean like that. I learned my lesson ’bout cheatin’ to get a cutie mark a long time ago.” “We just want help trying new things,” said Sweetie Belle. “With your chaos magic, we can try hundreds of things a day! We’ll get our cutie marks in no time! Picture it…” “I ain’t picturin’ anything, thank you very much. And didn’t I just tell you? Chaos magic’s dangerous. That’s why we’re havin’ this discussion standin’ in all this muck.” She looked around the farm again. “It’ll take weeks to clean normally. I guess I don’t have much choice but to use my magic to get rid of it.” With careful focus so as to avoid removing anything extra, she cleared the milkshake from the farm, revealing the green underneath. One spot of pink remained, however, and looked up indignantly. Applejack knew that natural camouflage wasn’t the only reason she hadn’t spotted Pinkie Pie already; her new way of perceiving the world was almost as strange as her new way of interacting with it. “What about us?” Scootaloo looked back at her coat, still matted with sticky milkshake. Applejack smirked. “I think y’all’d better go take a bath, don’t you? Run along now.” The three of them groaned and began to walk away, and Applejack turned to meet Pinkie as she bounced over. “That strawberry milkshake was delicious! Why’d you get rid of it?” Applejack sighed. “Maybe it reminded me a mite too much of a certain someone’s orange-flavored snow. With all these frozen treats appearin’ on the ground around here, it might be a good idea to stop growin’ apples and become dessert farmers!” Pinkie Pie gasped. “But where will we get our apples? Where will we get our apple cider? Where will Rainbow Dash get her apple cider?” She took Applejack by the shoulders and spoke in a desperate tone. “You can’t stop making apple cider! Rainbow Dash will go crazy if she can’t get any!” Applejack looked at the number-one cause of the Apple family’s yearly shortage of cider through half-lidded eyes. Then the last part of the sentence seemed to hit her. “A dessert farm?” Pinkie reeled back in awe. “Oh my gosh, Applejack! That’s the best idea ever! How could you not make a dessert farm?” She twisted her head to the left. “Oh, but how could you stop growing apples?” She twisted it to the right. “But who else in Equestria could make a dessert farm?” She turned her head back and forth a few more times, then sighed. “Having all this power isn’t going to be easy, Applejack. It’ll be up to you to make hard decisions like this. Decisions that could affect the diets of gajillions of ponies!” Applejack rolled her eyes. “Pinkie Pie—” “Oh, wait! I know!” Her face had lit up. “You can grow caramel apples and then wash off the caramel!” “Pinkie Pie!” Applejack raised a hoof to silence her. “Pinkie Pie, we ain’t startin’ a dessert farm.” “Aww, but why not? Just think what we could do with all those yummy treats!” Pinkie Pie licked her chops. “We could eat them!” “I ain’t usin’ Discord’s magic for silly things like that. It’s dangerous.” Applejack began to walk towards another likely place for the blue paint: a nearby barn where she had painted a wheelbarrow a while back. She hoped she hadn’t been the one to forget the put it away, but someone had. As expected, Pinkie Pie followed. “Dangerous? What do you mean?” “I haven’t quite got it under control yet. When I think about things, they just happen. It’s a wonder this conversation hasn’t triggered anythin’ crazy yet.” “Oh! So, was that big meteor—” “Yes, Pinkie. That was me. Don’t remind me of it unless you want it to happen again.” Applejack glanced at Pinkie Pie, who seemed strangely unconcerned. Still, she went on. “Don’t worry, though. I’ll get the hang of it soon, and then chaos magic won’t be a problem anymore.” “And then will you make a dessert farm?” Applejack sighed. “No, I ain’t startin’ a dessert farm. I’m perfectly happy farmin’ apples.” “Oh. That’s too bad.” Pinkie Pie looked at Applejack curiously. “If you’re not gonna start a dessert farm, what are you gonna do with your new magic?” “Nothin’.” “Nothing?” “That’s right. Nothin’.” “What about making the whole sky a rainbow?” Applejack stopped, screwed her eyes shut, and concentrated on absolutely nothing for a moment to keep the image from imposing itself on the world. Finally, she opened her eyes and kept walking. “Nope.” “What about making it rain chocolate milk?” “Nope. Especially since Discord did it.” “What about saving Equestria?” “Well, yeah, o’ course I’d do that. I ain’t just gonna sit around and shuffle my hooves in an emergency. But I ain’t gonna use it unless I have to. Way I see it, things were fine without chaos magic, and there’re too many risks to usin’ it. Best thing I can do with it is keep Equestria safe from it.” Applejack pulled open the barn door and looked inside. She didn’t seem to be able to sense the things inside with the door closed, so, unlike many of Applejack’s habits, this one wasn’t completely pointless now that she had chaos magic. Not that she wouldn’t have done it anyway; she thought it would be best to pretend she was a regular Earth pony rather than become accustomed to these silly powers. This was one of several barns the Apple family used for storing apples, and it had quite a few crates of them stacked up towards the back. Applejack could also detect, less distinctly, that the hayloft was full of hay. She could have guessed that on her own, she supposed, but it was interesting that she could “see” there at all. There were splatters of blue paint in a nearby corner. The wheelbarrow had since been moved out of the barn—and apparently, the paint bucket, as well. Applejack shut the door. “Well, shoot. Guess I’ll have to go to town and buy s’more.” She turned towards the farmhouse, where she could find some money to pay with. “Some more what?” Pinkie Pie turned around and continued to follow alongside her. “Blue paint. I’ll be needin’ some to paint the chicken coop.” Pinkie frowned slightly. “So, you’re really not using your magic for anything but big, fate-of-Equestria emergencies? Not even teeny-tiny, itty-bitty, little things like painting a chicken coop?” “Maybe not ‘fate-of-Equestria’. Fate-o’-my friends, fate-o’-my kin… fate-o’-myself. But yeah, just really important things like that.” “Not even things like… throwing a party?” She smiled again. “Parties aren’t very dangerous, right?” Applejack laughed. “No, Pinkie, they’re not very dangerous. For someone like me, they’re very, very dangerous.” She shook her head. “Shucks, that’d be some party, though.” “Yeah, I know. There’d be dancing on the ceiling and—” “Hush! Don’t make me think about it or I might accidentally make it happen.” “Oh.” She looked disappointed. “Right. Sorry. Well, don’t worry! Even without chaos magic, the ‘Whoopee! We Defeated Discord Again and Applejack Has His Powers’ Party, or WWDDAAHHPP for short, is going to be a blast! Everypony’s invited! It’ll be right in the middle of Ponyville, and there will be… Well, there were going to be lots of things, but I guess I’ll have to make new plans now. But that’s fine, if you don’t want to use your… Applejack?” Applejack had stopped and was looking at her regretfully. “Is something wrong?” “Sorry, Pinkie.” She started walking again. “I don’t think I’ll be able to go at all.” Pinkie Pie didn’t follow. Applejack stopped again and turned around to meet her uncomprehending gaze. “But I haven’t even told you when it is,” said Pinkie. Applejack sighed. “I’m really sorry, Pinkie. I’d love to go, I really would, but there’s no way I could go to a party without triggerin’ some huge disaster, and with all those ponies around, it’d be even worse.” Pinkie Pie’s eyes widened. “Hey, don’t worry,” Applejack quickly added, glancing nervously at Pinkie’s curls. “It ain’t a permanent thing, just till I’m fully in control of my magic. Then I can to go to your parties again.” Pinkie Pie relaxed. “Oh, okay. Well, I guess you’ve got a good reason not to go. The guest of honor will be missing, and so will the chaos magic, but it’ll be a fun party anyway. I’m sure Mr. and Mrs. Cake will let me host it at Sugarcube Corner. Good thing I haven’t sent the invitations yet! I’ll have to make new ones. Seeya later, Applegator!” She trotted off, giggling at her own pun. “Seeya, Pinkie.” Applejack turned around again and continued towards the farmhouse. She felt bad about disappointing Pinkie. It just didn’t feel right to spoil her plans when they were all about spreading joy and having fun—and they always were. She only spent a moment in the farmhouse to pick up her saddlebags and sling them around her barrel. A jingle was sufficient to confirm that it contained enough bits; paint was an inexpensive commodity. It didn’t help that Pinkie acted so cheerful about it, Applejack thought as she walked towards the farm’s entrance. She didn’t have a reputation for hiding her feelings, of course… but she had come to the farm expecting to throw a big, chaos magic-fueled party the likes of which had never been seen before, and in the span of minutes, she’d lost even the hope of Applejack attending. With Pinkie Pie, it was hard to be sure, but Applejack didn’t quite believe that even the peppiest, pinkest party pony she knew could just shrug something like that off. She noticed that the cloud she was staring at had taken the shape of a frowning mare’s head with a remarkably straight mane. It immediately dissipated as if embarrassed to be seen, and Applejack hoped it hadn’t been. Pinkie Pie was perfectly fine. It was silly to worry about her, and it was even sillier to broadcast those worries onto the sky. More importantly, Applejack reminded herself, she had to get to town and buy a bucket of paint without destroying Ponyville. She passed through the gate to Sweet Apple Acres and set off down the path. *                   *                   * News spread fast in Ponyville. When Applejack walked through town less than an hour ago, it had been as if nothing was amiss. Ponies had gone about their business, had friendly conversations, tended their gardens, and paid Applejack no more mind than anyone else passing by. When she came by now, ponies slowed down a bit, paused in their conversations, and stared at her. Some tried to be polite or discreet, acting mostly normal and giving her passing glances, while others expressed their curiosity or wariness more openly. Not many approached her directly, but one colt did ask her if she was the new Discord. She replied that, no, she was not the new Discord and asked if he even remembered the last time Discord came to Ponyville, because last time the town hall had been floating upside-down in the sky, and did he see any upside-down town halls? He said yes, and she quickly put the town hall back down and hurried on her way. The whole situation was rather irritating. She had lived in this town her whole life. Ponies knew who she was; it wasn’t like they’d never seen her before. And the ones who turned a wary eye to her, who herded their children in the opposite direction when she came into view, began to downright offend her after a time. Just because she had new powers didn’t mean she was going to suddenly turn evil. In fact, she was trying to keep Discord’s magic locked down, like any reasonable, safety-concerned pony would—it was rude to assume otherwise. She entered Fresh Coat’s paint shop feeling resentful. When he heard the jingle and looked up from his magazine, he rather conspicuously narrowed his eyes at her, which didn’t help. “Applejack,” said the gruff, orange stallion, closing the magazine and pushing it off to the side. “What’re you doing here?” Applejack couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “I’m here to buy some paint, Fresh Coat. That’s what’cha sell here, ain’t it?” He raised an eyebrow skeptically. “But you’re Discord.” Applejack closed her eyes. “I most definitely am not,” she said through clenched teeth. “You’re the new Discord.” He corrected himself. “If you need paint, can’t you just make it appear out of thin air? Snap your fingers?” Applejack raised a hoof. “Can’t snap my fingers if I ain’t got any,” she said sardonically. “So I can’t use Discord’s magic. A real shame, innit?” “Nice try,” said Fresh Coat, “but everyone knows that meteor storm earlier was you. And besides, you do have fingers.” He gestured at Applejack’s prehensile lion paw, whose lack of fingers she had been demonstrating a moment ago when it was a hoof. She set it back on the ground, and it reverted to its normal form. “Fine, you’re right. I could just make some paint appear outta thin air.” Already did, as a matter of fact. “But I ain’t gonna. Chaos magic ain’t a toy. I’m gonna keep it hidden when I don’t need it, ’cause otherwise I’ll just end up destroyin’ the world. So… can I buy some paint?” He raised both eyebrows this time. “You’re not usin’ your magic at all?” “Why’re we still talkin’ ’bout this?” He lowered his brows into their natural, angry-looking position. “Alright. What color you need?” “Blue.” “From the chart.” He pushed a piece of paper towards her. It always confused Applejack that a pony as curt as Fresh Coat gave such flowery names to his paint colors. Many of the shades were nearly identical, as well. Honestly, did anyone actually care about whatever difference there was between “Cloudsdale Evening” and “Distant Foal Mountain”? Fresh Coat interrupted her. “I thought you said you weren’t gonna use your magic.” “What?” She looked up. “I ain’t usin’ it.” Fresh Coat scowled at her. “If I was colorblind, I’d find a different line of work, Applejack. Change my desk back.” Applejack looked at his desk. It took her a moment to realize what he meant, and then she laughed. “Blue wood? Gosh, it ain’t even painted.” “Frozen Blueberry’s not a good shade for writing surfaces. It looks like a preschooler’s desk. Change it back.” “Yeah, yeah. Hold your horses.” She wasn’t supposed to be using her magic, but she felt an obligation to clean up her own messes. The blue drained out of the desk, turning it brown again. “Sorry. I’m still gettin’ the hang o’—” “Just don’t use your chaos magic in my shop again.” Unbidden, a burst of rage burnt through Applejack’s body, and she stomped hard enough to crack the tile floor. “For Pete’s sake, Fresh! I was tryin’ to apologize! An’ just who do you think you are, anyway? If I wanna use my magic, how’re you gonna stop me!?” She jabbed a hoof into his chest. He winced, and she was jolted back into reality. She set her hoof back on the floor and cleared her throat awkwardly. Should she… apologize again? Fresh Coat smoothed the fur on his chest and glared back at Applejack. “The Elements of Harmony worked on Discord. How’re you any different?” She put her thoughts of politeness on hold and took a moment to process the magnitude of the insult. “From Discord?” she stammered. “You’re paying for the floor. Now, get out of my shop,” he said, and opened his magazine again. Applejack stared at him. She felt anger flowing through her veins again, the most corporeal sensation she’d had since the moment she had apparently become Discord. No, this scene was not going to play out how he imagined it. If he thought she was just going to walk out of the shop and let him look cool after comparing her to Discord, he had another thing coming. She wanted to… Before she knew what was happening, there was a whoosh and an alarmed grunt, and Fresh Coat was yanked upward as if by a hook around his hind fetlock, sending his magazine flying. She found her forehead pressed against his nose as she looked him straight in the eyes. “Lemme answer your question first!” He stared at her, eyes wide with shock. “The first difference is… I am an Element o’ Harmony!” She pushed her face forward as she said this, causing him to swing slightly. “The Element of Honesty, to be precise! So maybe you should trust me a bit more when it comes to usin’ my new powers!” He blinked at this. She ignored him. “The second difference is…” “Applejack!?” Applejack stopped cold. She had a distinct feeling that Twilight Sparkle seeing this wasn’t good. Why was that? She was drawing a blank… Oh. It was because… …she was abusing her powers? Applejack quickly released her imaginary grip on Fresh Coat, and he came crashing to the ground. The shopkeeper emitted a long groan. Twilight ran into the building. “What are you doing, Applejack!?” “Gosh, Twilight, I dunno! I dunno what got into me!” She looked down at Fresh Coat. “Uh…” Twilight extended a hoof towards him. “Are you alright, Mr. Coat?” He ignored the gesture and got up on his own. “Yes. No thanks to your friend here.” He picked up his magazine in his mouth, went back behind the desk, and set it down. Applejack shuffled her hooves uneasily. “I’m really sorry, um, Mr. Coat. I really just…” “Leave.” She stopped for a moment and then turned around ashamedly. “Hold it,” he said. “Fix the floor. Then leave.” The cracks on the tiles receded, and Fresh Coat’s glare followed Applejack as she and Twilight Sparkle left the building, heading for Sweet Apple Acres. Once they were out, Twilight immediately confronted Applejack. “Applejack, what was that? Why were you holding Fresh Coat upside-down?” “I really don’t know, Twilight.” She bit her lip. “I guess I just let my anger get the better of me.” “Okay, but you don’t normally attack ponies when you’re mad.” Applejack cringed. Attack? “What did he do, exactly?” “Well, he… he was just bein’ rude to me about my new powers, and then he asked how I was any different from Discord. Ugh…” She shook her head. “That’s an awful reason. Maybe he was right. Maybe chaos magic is makin’ me evil.” “He said that?” “Well, I could tell he was thinkin’ it.” Twilight raised her eyebrows. “Oh, but not by readin’ his mind or anything! It was just obvious.” Twilight nodded. “Well, I know you’re not evil, Applejack. If you were, you wouldn’t be this sorry about it.” She gazed thoughtfully into the distance. “We all have crazy impulses sometimes. Maybe you’re just more susceptible to them now—that would explain a lot about Discord.” Applejack thought about it. “I reckon you’re right. See, the way these powers work is, whenever I imagine somethin’, it happens. I guess I just didn’t have time to think about it.” Twilight’s eyes went wide with shock. “That sounds really dangerous! I can’t believe you haven’t…” Applejack jammed a hoof against her mouth. “Shush!” “Right. Sorry.” They kept walking. “I’m really impressed, though, Applejack. Most ponies wouldn’t get this far without, um… You know. Killing anyone. You… haven’t done that yet, have you? By accident, of course.” Applejack focused on the path ahead. “The thought hadn’t crossed my mind.” “Oh. I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned it to you, then. Oops.” Applejack stayed silent, trying her best not to make something very bad happen. “So, what were you doing at a paint shop, anyway?” She sighed. “Buyin’ paint. What else would I be doin’? Droppin’ by for a visit?” Twilight shrugged. “Maybe.” “Have you met Fresh Coat?” Applejack chuckled. “Not exactly the friendliest guy in town, even to ponies without crazy magic powers. I still feel bad about roughin’ him up like that, though…” “But why do you have to buy paint? Can’t you just make some appear by imagining it? In fact, how’d you manage not to do it accidentally?” “Um… well, t’answer your first question, I ain’t usin’ my magic when it ain’t needed. It ain’t safe, and I reckon things were just fine without it.” “Really?” Twilight raised her eyebrows as high as they went. “Are you sure about that, Applejack? With Discord’s powers, you could change the lives of everyone in Equestria.” “That’s just what I’m afraid of.” Twilight frowned at her for a moment, then sighed. “Well, if that’s what you think is best. I trust your judgement.” They walked in silence for a while. Then a question occurred to Applejack. “What were y’all doin’ at the paint shop, Twilight?” “That’s where Pinkie Pie said to look for you. Right after Sugarcube Corner, that is.” Applejack chuckled. “But she didn’t tell y’all what I was doin’ there?” “Um, well, I… I didn’t ask. I just wanted to ask you for a favor, but since you’re not using your magic… I might as well not bother you about it.” She sighed again. Twilight sounded pretty let down. Applejack didn’t want to disappoint her, too… Perhaps her request was safe. “Maybe I can still help. What do you need?” A small smile appeared on Twilight’s face, though it looked like she was trying not to get her hopes up. “Well, I was hoping you could help me study how chaos magic works. Ponies barely know anything about it, but we do know that, if we did, it would reveal a lot about the nature of magic in general. About the world in general! And now, for the first time, it’s in the hooves of someone who might let us study it. It’s one of the most important developments in the history of science!” She cleared her throat and calmed down a bit. “If you think it’s safe, that is.” “Well, when you put it like that…” A smile began to spread across Twilight’s face again, and she pressed her lips together in an attempt to suppress it. “…it’s kinda hard to say no. What kinda tests do you have in mind?” “Controlled experiments in the library.” Her steps were getting bouncy, and her voice wasn’t quite under control. “We’ll start small. I can even learn a spell to help suppress your imagination.” “That sounds pretty safe. Sure, let’s do it.” Twilight’s face broke into a grin, and then she jumped in the air. “Hooray!” She hit the ground again and threw herself over Applejack. “Thank you so much! This is going to be revolutionary! This is going to be the most important thing we’ve ever done!” “Come on now, Twilight. We’ve saved Equestria, what? Four times?” Applejack found herself smiling, too, and lightly pushed Twilight away. “Well… yes,” she admitted. “But still! This is amazing! We’re going to be learning things nopony in history has ever known before!” “’Cept maybe Discord. Anyway, I still need to paint the chicken coop. You know where I can find some blue paint now that Fresh Coat’s kicked me out o’ the shop?” “Blue paint? Hmmm…” Twilight looked thoughtfully upwards. “Pinto Picasso sells paint, right?” “Not for paintin’ buildin’s with.” “Well, then… I’ll go back to Fresh Coat’s and buy it for you!” Twilight said, smiling. She began to turn around. Applejack stopped her. “Um, sorry to burst your bubble, Twilight, but he’ll know you’re just buyin’ it for me.” Twilight shrugged. “I’ll just pay him extra! Don’t worry about it. Wait right there!” She trotted off in the direction of the paint shop. Still feeling skeptical, Applejack went to the side of the street and sat down on a bench to wait. It would be a problem if she was banned from Fresh Coat’s paint shop for life. There was a reason he got away with his somewhat lacking customer service: there wasn’t anywhere else in Ponyville to get paint. The Apple family owned a lot of buildings, and they needed painting. How would they get the stuff? Big McIntosh didn’t like shopping. Granny Smith or Apple Bloom could buy it… but, though she wouldn’t admit it to them, Applejack didn’t fully trust either of those two with jobs like this. She could just imagine Granny Smith… going out and… That was odd. She couldn’t imagine Granny Smith going out and doing anything. She couldn’t imagine her at all, in fact. She knew that she was green and frail and white-haired, with a pie for a cutie mark, but she couldn’t picture her. She couldn’t picture Apple Bloom, either, or Twilight Sparkle. She tried approaching it from another angle, imagining a likeness of Apple Bloom on the ground. She spent a few moments looking at the image. So that was what her sister looked like. But, of course, she had known that all along… It was a very odd feeling. She rubbed her hoof across the dust, and the picture was gone once again from both the street and her mind. Twilight would be interested in this. A bucket slammed into the ground where Apple Bloom had been. “Here you go!” said Twilight cheerfully. Applejack looked up. “Oh, hey, there, Twilight. You snuck up on me.” “Did I?” She cocked her head. “Didn’t you hear my hoofbeats?” Applejack shook her head. “Interesting. That’s another thing we’ll have to examine. Anyway,” she extended her hoof towards the bucket, “here’s the paint for your chicken coop! I wasn’t sure what shade you wanted, so I chose Bluebell.” “That’s fine.” Applejack took the handle in her mouth and tried to test the weight of the bucket before realizing her possibly-infinite strength made the attempt futile. “Thanks for gettin’ me this. How much did he make you pay?” “Oh, don’t worry about that. It’s on me.” “On you?” Applejack shook her head. “Thanks, Twilight, but I’m not gonna make you pay for my paint. Just tell me how much it cost and I’ll pay you back.” “Oh.” Twilight exhaled resignedly. “You’re not going to let me do this for you, are you?” “Nope.” Applejack twisted her head and used her mouth to open a saddlebag. “Well, it cost… It cost nine bits.” Twilight grinned. Applejack cocked an eyebrow. “Uh-huh.” The corners of Twilight’s mouth slipped gradually downward. “And how much extra did you pay him?” Twilight sighed. “Sixteen bits.” “Twenty-five bits for a bucket o’ paint? I musta really ruffled his feathers.” Applejack reached into her saddlebag and pulled out two pouches of ten bits each, which she gave to Twilight. She then took five bits out of another compartment and gave them to her, as well. “Thanks,” Twilight muttered, taking the money up in her aura. She lifted a flap in her saddlebag and stored the pouches inside. With precise movements, she placed three of the five bits into another pouch and stored it alongside the others, replacing it with a new pouch containing the remaining two. “Anyway, about those experiments with your powers—I think we should start as soon as possible. I can write and set up an initial set of tests by tomorrow. I think we should start at nine in the morning. Will that work for you?” “Sure. Meet’cha at the library at nine, then?” “Exactly.” Twilight smiled again. “So long, Applejack!” “Seeya, Twi.” She picked up the paint bucket, and they took their separate paths, Applejack bound for Sweet Apple Acres, and Twilight, presumably, for the library. *                   *                   * Applejack felt satisfied as she approached the chicken coop. She had gone out and gotten a paint bucket, and it had been a lot of work, but she had done it honestly, without using her new powers. She wasn’t proud of her outburst in Fresh Coat’s shop, or of the milkshake mountain, or of anything she had done with her chaos powers so far, really, but that was exactly why she was trying her best to get Discord’s magic under control and resist the temptation to use it. So far, she seemed to be making good progress on that front. Now she stood in front of the coop, holding in her mouth a hard-won bucket of paint, as well as a brush, which she had retrieved with much less hassle. The final leg of the journey was here. She was going to paint the chicken coop blue. …A wave of Bluebell spread across the surface of the building, too fast for Applejack to react. She blinked a few times. Then, with a sigh through her load-bearing teeth, she turned around. There wasn’t much point in un-painting it just so she could paint it again. She’d just have to do her next job without chaos magic.