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// The Amusing Meanderings Become Observational Understandings Regarding Inquistive Natural Equines 
// Story: Psychadelic 
// by Masterweaver 
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	Tree Hugger smiled to herself, pouring another cup and setting it on the rug in front of her. "Hey there, Dissy. What's your squall this time?"

"How do you do that?! I didn't give you any warning, I didn't even go for a sight gag, I just up and appeared!"

"Your vibe's pretty unique, bro." The mare turned her head up, letting herself fall into the dazzling spectacle that was bent over her. "You wanna coil on down? Drink's my own unique blend."

Discord grumbled, slinking around to the other side of the small tent they were in and resting on the provided space. "Oh, fine, I suppose I might as well while I'm here." He picked up the teacup and sniffed at it warily. "What is this, anyway?"

"Oh, I mixed some homemade orange juice with a touch of lemonade, then I steamed some tea leaves in it. The heat really, like, spreads the sugar through the leaves, but the OJ settles the whole concoction, ya'know?" She sipped her drink contentedly.

That actually seemed to bring pause from Tree Hugger's guest. He contemplated the cup in his grasp for a moment, tilting it this way and that. Then part of his aura extended into the liquid, swirling about in befuddlement. "This... is actually very good."

"Glad you dig it, brother." Tree Hugger rolled her shoulders. "Like, so many ponies don't feel the need to walk beyond their own patterns. They define their personality by so many things as they grow, and then forget that they are the ones that defined them, so they treat these guidelines as law in totality, sequestering their experiences into patterns of limitation."

"...so they don't think of mixing three different drinks because mixing drinks is something they don't do?"

"A limitation of decision in precision, my friend. The unknown is only undiscovered because a soul will not spin out of its pattern." The mare sipped at her drink. "It's a safer balance, fairness pending, but a smaller spiral can only go so far."

"You know something? You're absolutely right." Discord set his teacup down on the rug, spreading his arms wide. "I look from Horseshoe Bay to Vanhoover, and a good seventy six out of eighty three ponies are just doing what they've been doing ever since they were a foal! Even the few that shake things up a little have special talents as 'inventors' or 'artists' and they're just being random because it's what they do!"

"Sounds like it really clogs your chakras when you see, like, ponies limiting themselves."

The spirit of chaos scoffed. "I don't have chakras."

Tree Hugger burst out laughing. "Oh Dissy, hahaha! You know how to yellow my vibe!"

"...what?"

"Hahahaha! Ha... No chakras? Dis, if you can think, you've got chakras." She peered at the swirling spectrums across from her. "Maybe not, like, in the places ponies have them, cause you're a magical manifestation, but trust me: Without your chakras, there wouldn't be a you."

"Are you saying that some sort of jewelry is responsible for my identity?" Discord flashed and twirled. "Perhaps a necklace? A crown? Earrings?"

"No, nonono. Chakras are..." Tree Hugger put down her cup, tapping her chin. "Okay, so... magic flows, right? Through everything. It's the lifeblood of the universe, every rock and tree and pony has magic flowing... but not all of them in the same way." She pointed at the rug. "This is not alive. If a unicorn, like, cast a come to life spell? The magic would change, bundle up and redirect through the rug. That bundling, that place where magic flows swirl, that's a chakra."

Discord leaned down. "You know, I've brought things to life before. Granted, they didn't always stay alive for very long."

"That's probably cause they didn't have many chakras." Tree Hugger patted her chest. "Ponies have... I think seven, ish? There's more to their magic flow then just the chakras, but that's the most consistent. And each chakra is part of where our body connects to our mind, our mind connects to our soul, and our soul connects to the universe. I am straight up telling you, man, almost all emotions come from chakras... or maybe it's emotions that change the flow of the chakras? It's too tightly bound for beginnings and endings, just the ebb of the tides in the self. Completely radical to watch, you know?"

"I... suppose?" The swirling concentration of colors seemed for the briefest moment to swell with blue splotches before once again becoming the shifting rainbow that so fascinated her.

"Mmm."

"What was that?"

Tree Hugger flicked an ear, refocusing. "So my point, it's like this: If you're you, like a real person, you've got emotions and thoughts and all those mind things going on and that's influencing the magic going through you. That means you have chakras. Or maybe in your case you're one big chakra? No, that doesn't make sense, you have more than one emotion. Maybe you've got, like, starfish chakras? Not a single bundle, but a lot of clusters." She spun her hooves around themselves. "So, like, everywhere instead of small spots."

Discord coiled down thoughtfully, his ever-shifting colors forming small spiraling patterns. "I suppose that..." He turned his head to her. "I mean, your explanation is acceptable."

"You totes were going to say it made sense."

He snorted. "It's funny how you think that, because that's not true."

"You're right, of course. You weren't going to say it, because you haven't said it. What's past is past, ever frozen in our shifting memory." Tree Hugger picked up her cup again, taking another sip. "Like, whoa. This taste. This taste is so good. But now, it's gone. And yet, I can still taste it. The fleeting memory won't make what was what is, but it does blend with my emotions and help cleanse my chakras to balance."

She sniffed at the air. "So... are you going to drink yours, or what?"

"Oh, yes, of course." Discord picked up his cup and took a quick sip. "I just got so caught up in listening to that fascinating rambling that comes out of your mouth. It's not like most of the rambling that comes from ponies, all that 'baking this' and 'dresses that' and 'existential crisis oh no!' You do these things about reality as a whole, and somehow you do it just as casually as other ponies talk about the weather."

"That's just how I flow man. My mind rolls round the nature of ponies and their lives. It's actually pretty radical, when you stop to think about it."

"Who has time to stop and think?" countered the spirit of Chaos. "Everything's happening at once! The more time you spend in your own head, the less time you spend observing what's going on around you."

"I dunno, Dissy. If you don't ever think, then you'll never discover your own pattern and just bounce against others like, you know, one of those balls that bounce in those... machines, with all the flashy posts in them...?"

"...Pinball machines?"

"Those are the ones. Never seen one myself, but they're things that exist." Tree Hugger shrugged. "It's kinda hard to work with metaphors when you don't, like, know about what they're talking about, you know?"

"Oh trust me, it's far worse when you're the only one who gets the joke. Everypony staring at you with those blank eyes, trying to figure out what's going on in your head..." Discord growled, his colors darkening with red. "It's so frustrating, putting your intelligence on display and not getting any appreciation."

"Don't let ignorance twist your chi," Tree Hugger advised him. "Nopony knows everything, and that's okay. If you let other's limitations get to you, you're going to be limiting yourself a lot. Take what you get, spiral along with it." She sipped at her cup, frowned, and poured herself some more of her personal blend. "So what I'm saying is, be you when you is all you have to be, you know?"

"That's pretty much what I normally do. Be me." Discord snapped his fingers and suddenly compressed into a far more quadrupedal form. "I could, like, be somepony who talks about radical auras, man. But, you know, I don't choose to?"

Tree Hugger snorted. "Is that supposed to be me? Cause you look nothing like me. I've got, like, more streaks and not so many spirals. I mean, your spirals are great and all, but they aren't me."

"Well, like, I don't know. You say streaks and spirals and cosmic balance and I can't tell what you're even talking about!" Discord's voice had slowly reverted back to his usual pitch. "You just--you--you just--"

The mare sipped her drink with a sly smile.

"...You just make no sense!" Discord shouted, decompressing into his usual self. "And yes!" he added, holding up a finger, "I know what I just said."

"Mmmhmm." Tree Hugger put her cup down. "Dissy, you ever think that, like, there's more than one form of sense?"

"What?"

"I mean, like..." The mare tapped her chin. "Okay. Would you say Fluttershy is me?"

"No. You're very different."

"And why's that?"

"Well, Fluttershy is very timid and has confidence issues despite having a number of talents and tends to be quite introverted whereas you have... this... way of just seeming like you're going nowhere and then suddenly being somewhere else!"

"You're overcomplicating things, man. It's our patterns." Tree Hugger tapped her head. "Me in here, I move so differently than Fluttershy. And a lot of other ponies, actually, but that's the point. What's common sense is made by the common, even if one pony who does so much better moves differently. Conceptual limitations are formed by societal expectations which are derived from important relations. Hay, even I'm not free of the ways of pony, no matter how off-wall I bounce."

"Really? You? Have normal tendencies?"

Tree Hugger nodded. "Sure, man. I'm only a mare after all. I make money, spend it, don't live entirely off the land, mind my P's and Q's, all that jazz. Doesn't matter that I see things different, there's still a part of me that just spends itself with others." She put down her cup. "What makes me different is the same thing that makes ponies different from each other. I am me, a single instrument in the symphony of reality, and the fact that I play such strong counterpoint is only a result of of myself being as me as it can be."

"Is this the same 'everyone's special' talk that teachers give to kids?"

"Hey, just cause you hear it young doesn't mean it's not true." Tree Hugger shrugged. "Look, Dissy, why'd you really come here?"

"I.... well..." For a moment, Discord's spirals were dominated by blotchy yellow, but they swiftly faded into a pale blue. "I just wanted to know how you were resisting the poison joak so well!"

"The what?"

"The... flowers I gave you. They're called Poison Joak, they're supposed to play pranks on ponies."

"Ooooooooh, is that what that yellow stuff was?" Tree Hugger nodded. "Yeah, I was able to balance myself so it sorta slid off, you know? Couldn't get a firm grip."

"You... what? How--No. No, miss Hugger, I am not going to just accept whatever you say." Discord stood up as tall as he could. "You and I are going to have some serious together time, and I will get to the bottom of this mystery!"

"Sounds great." Tree Hugger swallowed the last of her drink. "Camping trip this weekend?"

"That will do quite nicely, thank you. And I assure you our venue will be quite memorable!"

The mare smiled. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."