//------------------------------// // Imbalanced // Story: Arrived at Dusk // by aliengirlguy //------------------------------// Chapter 15: Imbalanced. Dusk knew there was something wrong before anyone else in Equestria realized something was going to happen. It was like suddenly being aware that there was some sort of odor in the air, something that kept getting stronger and stronger and couldn't make up its mind on what it smelled of, something that smelled neither bad nor good. It was a distracting, nagging sensation that Dusk couldn't place, but tried valiantly to ignore and get on with the business of living. But as with all things that seem small and nagging, there usually is reason in the end for said nagging. ooo ooo ooo When Mac came to visit Dusk one particular day, he found the pony rambling to himself, pacing back and forth in front of his garden with the shop closed up tight. There was no sign of other ponies, not even Derpy. "Dusk?" Mac asked him in concern trotting up to the agitated pony. He was alarmed when the pony's horn began sputtering small bursts of magic like a guttering fire and the other stallion's mane was undone and frazzled more them Pinky Pie's. "Dusk?" he called out carefully. The pony didn't seem to hear him, eyes riveted off to the North-East and muttering to himself nonsensically. Rather alarmed now, he carefully herded his friend down the road and towards Twilight Sparkle's. If there was anypony who could understand and help in magical matters, at least he thought this was magical matters, it was her. Macintosh actually swore out loud when he spotted the closed sign. "Well, no help for it then," he told himself and easily hefted the dazed Dusk onto his back, who didn't put up much of a fight, but continued to repetitively turn his head in the same direction. By the time that he had found Twilight, the rest of the town was already realizing that something was up. "Twilight!" he called, "Miss Sparkle!" He waded through the ruin that was once Sweet Apple Acre's corn field (grimacing at the confusing destruction), and the enlarged, partially eaten sagging apple tree and the running around giraffe legged furry little animals…okay, he did briefly pause to take this all in, before he continued his dash towards his sister and her friends. "Macintosh! Thank Celestia! I'm going to need your help with…what in tarnation's wrong with him?!" Applejack exclaimed. Rarity gasped in dismay as she, Fluttershy, Pinky Pie and Applejack all gathered around Twilight and Macintosh, who had presented his back for the lavender unicorn to access Dusk. "Poor Dear! Just look at him! He looks simply horrid! And his poor mane!" Rarity crooned. Twilight listened to Macintosh's story grimly as Spike turned Dusk's head this way and that, trying to open an eyelid, which stayed tightly closed. "This is not good," Twilight sighed as she stood up after examining the twitching pony, "by the looks of his horn, it's almost like he is reacting to something magically, I've heard that some ponies, though its rare mind you, are sensitive to certain magics, and since his symptoms seem to be happening just as all this strangeness; the animals, weather and plants; it's possible that whatever is affecting everything and blocking my magic to right them is adversely affecting Dusk…oh!" She trailed off when Spike suddenly belched and a scroll emerged from the green flames, she levitated it and read the contents. "Come on girls! Celestia needs us right away at the castle," she paused and met Macintosh's worried eyes, "Big Macintosh, I know that you really care about him, but this possible reaction he is having may be important to what's going on, I think we need to take him with us. The Princess might even be able to help him in ways that no other pony can." He turned his head to look at Dusk, who had now been reduced to a sweating silence, his hooves twitching as his horn took on a gradual greenish hue. "Big Macintosh," Applejack came up to her brother, laying a hoof on his side, "I need you to stay behind and keep an eye out on the homestead while I'm gone and look after Granny and Applebloom. Chances are whatever hooha is goin' on, may affect the farm even more then here. I need you to defend the homestead, our lively hoods are at stake as well. I promise that he'll be safe with us." She offered her back, and with a sigh, Big Macintosh bowed his head in assent and miserably secured Dusk to his sisters back, using a lasso to tie him securely. "All right everypony! Let's go!" Twilight called, rearing, and the Mane 6 dashed away. Fluttershy, who was running next to Applejack said softly, "you didn't just say that to protect the farm did you?" Applejack nodded, her face grim "I did it, because whatever's goin' on, I got a bad feelin' and I don't want to drag him into it as well. I got the real jeebies about this, better he's safe and sound watchin' over things then with the seven of us in the thick of it." Ooo ooo ooo They arrived to find Princess Celestia pacing back and forth. They had taken a moment to have one of the guards remove Dusk and take him to the palace medical wing to have him looked at while they found out what was going on. Their friend was not doing well during the short train ride to Canterlot. Twilight just hoped that whatever was going on could be solved soon before the poor stallion got worse. Unfortunately for Dusk and the rest of the Mane 6, nobody got a chance, in their distraction with the chaos, they were unable to bring him up to Celestia when she told them about the being known as Discord, the revelation that the Elements of Harmony had been stolen, and Discord's subsequent appearance. In all the activity involving the maze, he was soon pushed to the back of the ponies minds. Dusk meanwhile was being cared for by a concerned medi-pony By the name of Gauzy, a unicorn with the first aid cross on her whitish pink flank and red mane pulled up in to a serviceable bun, her horn glowing as she finished trying, and failing, to revive the agitated unicorn whose horn had now evolved into a continuous stream of acidic green sparks that were getting darker as she watched. With no help for it, she knew that the report that the guard had been given by the unicorn Twilight Sparkle to the sentry had been correct. The poor thing was responding to some sort of magic, almost like an allergy, and whatever it was, it was too strong for her to block. She ran over to the doors and summoned a sentry, asking him to send for either Princess Celestia or Princess Luna, since treating the stallion was beyond even her strong healing capabilities. When she returned, it was to give a startled scream. Where she had left her patient, the bed was now a deep charred metal frame, and her patient was nowhere in sight. Ooo ooo ooo Discord laughed as he watched the bearers of that pesky Elements of Harmony went their separate ways. Nothing like a personality altering hedge maze, always does the trick. "Ah yes! There is nothing like work well done!" he chortled, "I think I'll celebrate with…oh ho!" he crowed, interrupting himself, as every single hair, scale, fur and in-between stood on end. "How interesting!" he looked down at the physical evidence of his disturbance, "I admit I've never felt THAT before! Well, well! It seems something interesting was added to the pie of creation since I was last in town." With a snap of his fingers, he popped away, and reappeared in a field just outside of Canterlot. He looked around for a moment. He didn't spy anything interesting…oh wait! There was something! He lazily floated over to the silver and black lump that was glowing a deliciously dark and very deadly looking darkish green magic; he considered his best approach. He conjured a pogo stick and prodded the lump, which twitched, revealing a rather sickly looking pony in obvious distress. "Well…how completely boring!" he declared with a sigh, continuing to poke it for a few more moments and thoroughly unimpressed when all it did was moan softly. He tossed the stick aside and looked down at his twitching scales which had actually produced tiny little alarms that were blaring loudly. "Something boring where something interesting should be…hmmm" he contemplated the conundrum, twirling a clawed finger through his goatee and then brightened, "I know! I'll just make him look interesting, maybe a giant monster that is unleashed on Canterlot, and have him eat the princesses! Why it's absolutely brilliant!" he clapped his paws, and turning back to the rather poor excuse for a false emergency, and after a moment of mentally designing his artwork, he directed his power towards the pathetic figure and snapped his fingers. There was a moment of sudden silence, a rather foreboding silence, but Discord frowned and continued to snap his fingers again, only to be met with nothing. He frowned, staring at his fingers, snapping them aimlessly, turning the sun on and off, changing the grass into cheese and back again. "How odd, everything appears to be in order…" Then he was blown off his feet and sent smacking into the ground, which on later reflection he should have turned into a giant feather pillow. The pony that had refused to succumb to the magical delights of Discord was now floating in the air before him in a giant ball of dark green energy. "Well this doesn't bode well," he declared a tad bit nervously and then squeaked as the mysterious pony opened his eyes and solid deep glowing blood red and nothing else stared out at him. :Well, weeelll!: the pony hissed, in a language that made the snake and dragon part of him shiver. The pony seemed to slither while he floated, which admittedly was an impressive feat as he drew up to Discord, who quickly scrambled to his feet. :So you're the creature that dared to disrupt the balance are you? How…delightful: he hissed in high tones that raked against his senses. :I admit, I am grateful for the invitation to come out and play that your oh so delicious magic kindly provided for me since your own appearance in this very odd place, became actuality; I will admit, I had never considered such a place as this existing before when I was once one with myself…or rather, more solid then I once was, and then became Us…: he hissed bemusedly. Even Discord could not completely figure out what was going on. :Well, as fun as I'm sure things are out here, and your chaos magic is rather refreshing, unfortunately you see, you have disturbed my vessel," he gestured to himself with a hoof, "I have grown rather attached to him, despite his idealism. He has, though unknowingly, carried me and nurtured me for quite a long time, and Lord Voldemort rewards those who benefit me…mmm…and while my…sense of aesthetics has changed enough to appreciate your…work, I'm afraid you have made the mistake in thinking that you could work this body like the rest of those pathetic equines as some sort of toy- no…wait, I believe the term is ponies? No matter,- I would have been content in keeping my vessel safe and out of your way until things had been handled, but you just had to go and try to harm he who matters the most to me.: He slithered forward suddenly almost like a striking snake, until he was looming over Discord, :and when someone tries to use what is mine, I'm afraid…I can be a rather possessive Dark Lord…such a shame, I rather enjoy your power, oh well.: Discord had sensed a darkness a time or two over the centuries of his existence in others, but nothing overtly serious that he couldn't handle if he wanted, though he had already been stone by the time that Princess Luna went to the dark side, and that upstart in he north had barely been worth his interest, though he would credit him a certain style. He had come across powerful magic that had, for a time, defeated him. But never before had it been from Darkness. The pony smiled demonically. Until now that is. Discord screamed feeling something darker then even he liked crawling up his body and towards his neck. He gathered all his power and managed to pop out of there as quick as he could. The floating pony frowned at the absent space, "What a perfectly good waste of a dramatic murder…oh well…" he raised a hoof, then paused and said irritated, "how the boy cannot miss thumbs, even after all this time, is beyond me." With that, he clapped his hooves together as a replacement for a finger snap, and popped away. When he reappeared, it was to the sight of the pony that would ensure the matter with this Discord character was settled without revealing his, or the boy's, hand…hoof? Whatever! It was all rather bothersome really, but he would respect the boy's need for obscurity...for now. Fortunately, it seemed that Twilight Sparkle (the hidden pony grimaced at the name) seemed to have come to some realization in how to deal with Discord, at least proving some of her worth as she made some sort of excited exclamation to a rather sickly looking baby dragon about friendship and the Elements of Harmony. 'Ugh' he mentally grumbled from his disillusioned spot in the shadows of the pony's bedroom, 'how disgustingly sweet, I think I have a toothache…I can see now why this Discord fellow is the way he is if the world is filled with goody-goodies like this. No matter, it seems that I will have to ensure that…ugh…the friendship of magic is restored," Voldemort shuttered, "The things I do for revenge. I'm sure the barmy old coot is hopefully laughing at him from his grave by now.' He gloomily followed after the galloping unicorn…how his old self could bare to drink the blood of such creatures as these he would never know- and they soon arrived at a rather depressing and chaotic looking place he knew from his vessel's memories was called Sweet Apple Acres. The sight of the pony he recognized again from said memories known as Big Macintosh acting like some sort of over hyper canine, stirred a wave of foreign horror and rage, the first stirrings from his other half since he had taken over when the imbalanced magic caused their connection to reverse itself, drawing him to the conscious front. So the boy was more aware then he thought...and he was not pleased. He grimaced and for a moment, one red eye turned bright emerald green. 'I'll destroy the creature that did this to Mac!' a younger tenor hissed into their shared mind. 'Hush precious,' Lord Voldemort crooned soothing the boy back into his subconscious, 'hush, I'll take care of it, no worries.' The green eye turned red again and Voldemort turned his attentions back to the ponies. Much to his amusement, Twilight Sparkle was rolling around with Applejack as she tried to talk some sense into the pony. He could see her laying her horn on the pony in a desperate plea with her magic. It wasn't a bad idea, approaching from the mind, but for the master of the mind magics, Voldemort knew that she needed more focused direction to get what she wanted. "To easy" he muttered to himself with a yawn and lazily sent a curl of magic to mingle with the magenta magic of the horn, turning it dark briefly, before sinking into the earth pony, no one noticing the addition. He grunted, satisfied, when the earth pony returned to normal, having seen the…ugh! images of friendship he had focused the unicorn magic towards. One after another, he followed and repeated his actions with the rest of the bearers of harmony. There was a slight snafu with the last one, Rainbow Dash, but after adding a little temporary speed to Fluttershy's wings, they managed to trap her and apply the Voldemort assisted pony magic. Ooo ooo ooo Voldemort popped away from the ponies that determinedly returned to gather their elements and make their way to the center of town…or at least the approximate center of town, where Discord was reclining on a throne, laughing manically. Voldemort sighed as he popped in front of Discord, leaning casually on nothingness. Discord yelped, dropping his cup of chocolate milk. "You!" he gasped. "Well you're not that hard to find," Voldemort said dryly, gesturing to the fabulous chaos all around them, and the panicked citizens. "I have to admit, your work is indeed impressive, and it's a shame that it is going to all come to an end." "Not if you can't find me!" Discord declared, raising his fingers, but halted at an amused chuckle and a waved hoof as Voldemort reclined back, front legs behind his head. "Like I would bother to lift my han…hoof to dispose of you…all though I did think about it mind, but then I thought to myself, my other half mind you, and he quite agrees, that you should only be defeated by what you despise the most, a sort of poetic end if you will…and just to let you know, I'm actually doing you a favor right now, since my other-self was quite…mmmm…so delightfully murderous when he saw what you did to his big galoot, in my opinion, Big Galoot is better, but then again, I wasn't there when he was named." Discord frowned at the other's drawled innuendo and then his eyes widened when Twilight Sparkle called out his name challengingly, by then Voldemort had disappeared and was watching from his perch on a non-cotton candy cloud invisibly as events unfolded. His eyes fixed and unmoving as he whispered to his other-self. "Pay attention now, as much as I detest the sappy endearment, this magic may prove useful later so pay attention and learn." Voldemort watched as the Mane 6 used the elements of harmony to turn both Discord into a stone statue and reverse the chaos that had been wrought. A shame really, since it was all rather exquisite, but oh well…maybe next time. In the meanwhile he would keep an eye on things now that he was properly awake, even if he had to return to his little cozy corner of the boy's mind, for a time. Who knows, maybe he would make a reappearance a time or to when it looked amusing enough. After all, he was awake now, and he wasn't planning on going anywhere. Ooo ooo ooo When the girls went to return to Canterlot to tell Princess Celestia the good news, they found a rather confused looking Dusk wandering along the road to the castle. The girls were rightly horrified that in the entire ruckus, they had been unable to tell the princess about Dusk. Dusk, who had a tremendous headache, his scar aching horribly, only remembered getting up to feed the snakes in his garden before things went really foggy. He was understandably surprised when they told him along the way to the castle what had happened and when they were standing in front of the throne room doors, Dusk told them that he completely understood, forgiving them for not seeing to him earlier, then beat a hasty retreat before he risked being in the presence of royalty. Macintosh was there to greet him when he came home on the train with an ice pack on his head, and Macintosh didn't let him out of his sight again for days afterwards until Applejack dragged him away muttering about chores. Dusk remembered nothing of what happened while he had been sick.